Fundamentals 11/10: Jobless Claims, Import/Export

Initial Jobless Claims
-390,000 for the week ended November 5
-Down 10,000 from previous week’s revised 400,000 (was 397k)
-Today’s 390k is the lowest level since April
-4-week moving average was 400,000, down 5,250
-While 390,000 claims is still high it does show improvement. Folks need to concentrate on the fact that it is not the unemployment rate which is important but the labor participation rate.

Trade Balance
-The trade deficit for September fell to $43.1 billion

Inflation
Import/Export Prices (October 2011)
-Export Prices, Month/Month -2.1 %
-Export Prices, Year/Year 6.3 %
-Import Prices, Month/Month -0.6 %
-Import Prices, Year/Year 11.0 %
-This shows inflation decreasing