Labor Market Shows Resilience As Unemployment Claims Align With Expectations

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits slightly increased last week, reaching 227,000, aligning with economist predictions and indicating the U.S. labor market’s continued resilience.

The Department of Labor’s latest report Thursday showed a marginal uptick of 6,000 claims from the previous week’s 221,000 filings, meeting expectations.

The update on jobless claims after came after ADP employment data for July revealed a substantial rise of 324,000 jobs, surpassing the anticipated 189,000, setting an optimistic tone ahead of the crucial jobs report on Friday.

Looking ahead, the consensus economists projections call for a slight dip in non-farm payrolls, from 209,000 in June to 200,000 in July. The unemployment rate is expected to remain stable at 3.6%, while wage growth is likely to ease slightly from 4.4% to 4.2%.

Key Highlights From Last Week’s Jobless Claims

• The number of Americans registering for jobless claims in the week ending July 29 rose from 221,000 to 227,000, as expected.
• The four-week moving average, which eliminates week-to-week variability, came in at 1,712,250, marking a decrease of 4,500 from the previous week’s revised average.
• Continuing jobless claims for the week ended July 22 rose from the revised 1,679,000 to 1,700,000, matching expectations.
• Notable weekly increases were reported in Missouri, up 2,458 to 5,028. Noteworthy declines were found in California, down 2,386 to 41,341, and Ohio, down 2,958 to 18,500.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index and the Nasdaq 100 Index continued to slide in the premarket, down 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively. On Thursday the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) fell 0.32%, while the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) was down 0.57%.

Treasury yields continue to rise, with the 10-year yield surging 6 basis points to 4.15%, the highest since November 2022.

The U.S. dollar index, which is tracked by the Invesco DB USD Index Bullish Fund ETF (NYSE:UUP), slightly fell 0.1%.

Gold, as tracked by the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD), ticked 0.1% higher to $1,935/oz.

Produced in association with Benzinga