Summary:
- Initial jobless claims falls to lowest level since 1973
- Building permits come in inline but housing starts fall
- USD trading lower across the board
A batch of economic data from the US has failed to provide an overriding signal on the world’s largest economy, with jobs numbers dropping to multi-decade lows but a larger than expected fall in building permits keeping the good news in check.
The weekly initial jobless claims data is often overlooked compared to the NFP release but it can in some ways provide a fairer reflection on the US labour market, with less variance seen in the release. Today’s number fell to 220k from 260k last time out against a consensus forecast of 250k in what is a clear positive data point. It is in fact the lowest reading since 1973
Initial jobless claims fell to its lowest level in more than 30 years in the past week. Source: XTB Macrobond
Tempering the positivity from this strong reading however, was the latest housing market data. The building permits figure for December came in at 1.30M, the same as the prior reading and only marginally different to the 1.29M expected but the housing starts could be an area of concern.
Housing permits showed a slight pick-up in December but remains close to 0% overall. Source: XTB Macrobond
The US dollar has been having a tough time of it of late and even though the USD index managed to post a daily gain yesterday it remains under pressure. Only the Canadian dollar is falling against the Greenback today with all other currencies gaining. The CHF is one of the best performers amongst G10 with NOK, NZD and EUR also sitting on fairly sizable gains.
The USD is under pressure once more today with only CAD faring worse. Source: xStation