Source: Wall Street News.
The number of initial jobless claims in the United States for the week ending June 22nd decreased to 233,000, lower than expected. The number of continued jobless claims rose to the highest level since the end of 2021, indicating that it will take longer for the unemployed to find jobs, which is not a positive sign for the economy.
The ongoing release of lukewarm economic data indicates an increased urgency for rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
The continued rise in jobless claims to the highest level since the end of 2021 indicates that it will take longer for the unemployed to find jobs, and the largest drop in core durable goods orders since the beginning of this year means that companies are still cautious about investment under the background of long-term rising interest rates and weak demand.
The number of initial jobless claims slightly decreased, while the number of continued jobless claims hit the highest record in nearly three years.
On Thursday evening, data released by the U.S. Department of Labor showed that the number of initial jobless claims for the week ending June 22 was 233,000, slightly lower than the expected 235,000 and a slight drop from the previous value of 238,000.
For the week ending June 15, the number of continued jobless claims in the United States was 1.839 million, exceeding the expected 1.828 million and the previous value of 1.828 million, reaching the highest level since the end of 2021. This indicates that it will take longer for the unemployed to find jobs, which is not a positive sign for the economy.
Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, recently stated that the labor market is approaching a potential "tipping point," and further weakening demand for workers may lead to an increase in unemployment rate.
After the data was released, the market reacted minimally, with the 2-year U.S. Treasury yield falling by nearly 1 bp, now reporting 4.739%.
On the same day, data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce showed that core durable goods orders in the United States rose only 0.1% from the initial value in May, although higher than the expected -0.5%, but this was because the data for April was revised down from 0.6% to 0.2%.
It is worth noting that in the past 5 months, durable goods order data has been revised down for 4 months.
Core durable goods (excluding non-defense capital aircraft) orders fell by 0.6% from the previous month, the largest drop since the beginning of this year, lower than the expected growth of 0.1%, revised up from 0.2% to 0.3% for the previous value.
The unexpected drop in core durable goods orders indicates that companies are still cautious about investment under the background of long-term rising interest rates and weak demand.
Excluding transportation-related durable goods orders fell 0.1% from the previous month, lower than the expected growth of 0.2%, and the previous value was 0.4%.
At the same time, the shipment of non-defense capital goods (excluding aircraft) fell by 0.5% from the previous month, which is a huge drop for the key signal of business spending and GDP.
Editor/Lambor