Unadjusted Jobless up. Adjusted Jobless down.

Initial Jobless Claims (week ended 4/6/2013)

– New Claims (seasonally adjusted) 346,000. Previous was 388,000.

– 4-week Moving Average. 358,000. Previous was 355,000

– Unadjusted New claims was 353,973 and increase of 37,025 from the previous week

Blame the fact that unadjusted went up and adjusted went down on the Easter Bunny.  Easter and Thanksgiving move about the calendar making seasonal adjustments more difficult in weeks such as the one past.

Import/Export Prices (March 2013)

– Export Prices – Month/Month -0.4 %

– Export Prices – Year/Year   +0.3 %

– Import Prices – Month/Month -0.5 %

– Import Prices – Year/Year   -2.7 %

Chain Store Sales

Today is the day on which Chain Stores report their sales.  There is no composite number for this but only the individual reports from each large retailer.