- The number of Americans filling for unemployment benefits was 0.240 million in the week ended November 19, compared to 0.222 million reported in the previous week. Today’s reading came in above market expectations of 0.225 million. The sharp increase pointed to a looser labor market as the Federal Reserve raised its target funds rate by 375bps since March. On a seasonally unadjusted basis, initial claims soared by 47,909. The four-week moving average, which removes week-to-week volatility, rose by 5,500 to 226,750.
- Continuing claims reading, which lags initial jobless claims data by one week, rose to 1.551 million from 1.507 million, while analysts expected a smaller increase to 1.517 million.
- New orders for US manufactured durable goods rose to 1.0% month-over-month in October, from a downwardly revised 0.3% increase in September and compared to market expectations of 0.4%. It is the biggest rise in four months, led by transportation equipment (2.1%), up six of the last seven months. Excluding transportation, new orders edged 0.5% higher. Other increases were also seen for electrical equipment and appliances (0.4%); machinery (1.5%); capital goods (2.1%); and computers and related (4.7%). Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a proxy for investment in equipment, were up 0.7%, rebounding from a 0.8% drop in September and beating forecasts of a flat reading.
- Durable goods orders excluding transportation increased 0.5% in October easing from an downwardly revised -0.59% fall in September, above market forecasts of 0.1% rise.
EURUSD pair rose after release of today’s data and is heading towards resistance level at 1.0360. Source:xStation5
