Weekly Unemployment Claims (every Thursday)
There were two minor pieces of data released this morning. Last week’s unemployment figures were posted at 8:30 AM ET. They showed that 232,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last week, down slightly from the previous week’s 233,000 initial filings. Analysts were expecting to see a lower number in this week’s update. Because rising claims hints at a weakening employment sector, the higher number than expected is favorable news for bonds and mortgage pricing. Unfortunately in this case, this is only a weekly snapshot and the variance from forecasts was fairly minor. That has prevented much of a reaction in the bond and mortgage markets this morning.