Fundamentals 9/8: Jobless Claims Creeping Up

Initial Jobless Claims
-414,000 for week ended September 3
-Up 2,000 from previous week’s revised 412,000 (was 409k)
-4-week Moving Average 414,750, up 3750 from previous week
-Going the wrong way. Chart below

Trade Balance (July)
Trade Balance for July was -$44.9 billion. The is the (X-M) component of GDP. The Trade deficit was smaller partly because of lower oil prices. Exports were up 4.8%.

Consumer Metrics
The Consumer Metrics Absolute demand Index has been increasing the past 6 days. This is a near real time measurement of online discretionary spending.

Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
This survey measurement of consumer confidence fell to -49.3 its second lowest level of this year.