Fundamentals 9/1: Jobless Claims Can’t Break Below 400k, Manufacturing Better (table)
Initial Jobless Claims
-409,000 for week ended August 27
-Down 12,000 from previous week’s revised 421,000
-4-week Moving Average 410,250, up 1750 from previous week
-Going in circles. Stubbornly high circles.
Manufacturing
-ISM Manufacturing Index August: 50.6
-Readings above 50 signal expansion
-This was better than expected but still not wildly positive
-Below is a full summary
Non-farm Productivity and Costs
-Nonfarm productivity, Quarter/Quarter (seasonally adj. annual rate): -0.7%
-Unit labor costs, Quarter/Quarter (seasonally adj. annual rate): 3.3%
-None of that is good news
Construction Spending
-Construction Spending, – Month/Month change -1.3 %
-Construction Spending – Year/Year change – 0.1 %
Bond markets are up modestly today as markets await the jobs report tomorrow.