Fundamentals a bit Soft.

Initial Jobless Claims  (week ended 2/28/2015)

 

– New Claims seasonally adjusted  320,000. Previous was 313,000
– New Claims unadjusted 310,497  an increase of 29,858 from previous .
– 4-week Moving Average  304,750. Previous was 294,500

 

Challenger Job-Cut Report (February 2015)

 

– Announced Layoffs 50,579. Previous was 53,041

For 3 years this number has been more or less flat but Initial Jobless Claims have steadily declined.  I have no idea what the implication is but clearly the correlation had diminished.

 
Productivity and Costs (4thQ2014)

 

– Nonfarm productivity quarter/quarter seasonally adjusted, annualized -2.2%. Previous was +3.9%
– Unit labor costs quarter/quarter seasonally adjusted, annualized  +4.1%. Previous was -1.0%.

This data is hard to analyze because previous was revised from -1.8% to +3.9%.  Productivity is GDP/hour worked.

 

Gallup US Payroll to Population  (February 2015)

– level  43.9. Previous was 44.1.

This is the percentage of the U.S. adult population aged 18 and older who are employed by an employer for at least 30 hours per week.

 

Factory Orders  (January 2015)

– Factory Orders month/month  -0.2%. Previous was -3.5%