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Economy in Brief
Japan's Trade Deficit Worsens As Exports Decelerate Faster
The moving average of the deficit has worsened from 12-months to 6-months to 3-months. ...
U.S. Housing Starts Decline but Permits Improve
Housing starts eased 0.9% (-4.7% y/y) during May to 1.269
million (SAAR) from 1.281 million in April...
U.S. Energy Product Prices Remain Under Pressure
U.S. retail gasoline prices continued their recent
decline during the week ended June 17, falling six cents to $2.67 per gallon (-7.3%
y/y)...
Zew Expectations are Beaten Back Again
The set-back is broad in nature across countries/regions...
Empire State Manufacturing
Index Turns Negative
The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business
Conditions declined sharply to -8.6 during June...
Special Topics
by Tom Moeller December 1, 2005
Initial claims for jobless insurance reversed about half of the prior week's rise and fell 17,000 to 320,000 during Thanksgiving week. Consensus expectations had been for 323,000 claims.
Hurricane related claims dropped back to 10,000 and brought the total of the three storms during the last thirteen weeks to 592,000.
The four-week moving average of initial claims fell slightly to 322,500 (-3.5% y/y).
Continuing claims for unemployment insurance fell 24,000 following a downwardly revised 26,000 gain the prior week.
The insured rate of unemployment held at 2.2% for the tenth consecutive week.
| Unemployment Insurance (000s) | 11/26/05 | 11/19/05 | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial Claims | 320 | 337 | -7.5% | 343 | 402 | 404 |
| Continuing Claims | -- | 2,767 | 1.1% | 2,926 | 3,531 | 3,570 |
