Thursday, August 25, 2016
Jobless claims have stayed remarkably consistent over the past few weeks: this morning’s read totaled 261K, down 1000 claims from last week’s unchanged 262K. The week before that showed 266K jobless claims. So not only have we been holding within a healthy 250-275K range of late, we haven’t strayed from the 260Ks!
Continuing claims fell from 2.175 million to 2.145 million. Again, this is considered within a positive economic range, as well as remarkably consistent week over week. Though likely considered mild data by most of the market, for sure the Fed presidents at Jackson Hole (more on this later) are discussing these trends this morning.
Durable Goods orders results for July also came in this morning, with a headline read of +4.4%, a big jump from the previous month’s downwardly revised -4.2% as well as the 3.4% expected. Stripping out transportation costs, this number falls to +1.5%, still a fairly strong number. Ex-defense, non-aircraft (another way to remove inconsistent, outsized orders) reached +1.6%. This is the second highest read of the year so far.
Q2 earnings for the last remaining retailers continue to trickle in today, as well. Tiffany & Co. outperformed on the bottom line by posting 84 cents per share (71 cents was the Zacks consensus estimate) on more or less in-line $932 million in quarterly sales. Comps were down 8% year over year, and shares of TIF are up 5.5% in the pre-market.
Tomorrow we expect to hear from Fed Chair Janet Yellen from the annual FOMC retreat to Jackson Hole, WY, and while the week began without analysts expecting much if any news developing from the Fed presidents, we have actually been hearing much more hawkish rhetoric regarding interest rates. Presidents George, Dudley, Williams and Lockhart have all commented they’d be in favor of a rate hike sooner rather than later.
This puts a tighter focus on Yellen’s comments tomorrow, especially with a relative dearth of other economic news in this late-summer swoon of market activity.
Mark Vickery
Senior Editor
Image: Bigstock
Will Janet Yellen Be More Hawkish, Too?
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Jobless claims have stayed remarkably consistent over the past few weeks: this morning’s read totaled 261K, down 1000 claims from last week’s unchanged 262K. The week before that showed 266K jobless claims. So not only have we been holding within a healthy 250-275K range of late, we haven’t strayed from the 260Ks!
Continuing claims fell from 2.175 million to 2.145 million. Again, this is considered within a positive economic range, as well as remarkably consistent week over week. Though likely considered mild data by most of the market, for sure the Fed presidents at Jackson Hole (more on this later) are discussing these trends this morning.
Durable Goods orders results for July also came in this morning, with a headline read of +4.4%, a big jump from the previous month’s downwardly revised -4.2% as well as the 3.4% expected. Stripping out transportation costs, this number falls to +1.5%, still a fairly strong number. Ex-defense, non-aircraft (another way to remove inconsistent, outsized orders) reached +1.6%. This is the second highest read of the year so far.
Q2 earnings for the last remaining retailers continue to trickle in today, as well. Tiffany & Co. outperformed on the bottom line by posting 84 cents per share (71 cents was the Zacks consensus estimate) on more or less in-line $932 million in quarterly sales. Comps were down 8% year over year, and shares of TIF are up 5.5% in the pre-market.
Tomorrow we expect to hear from Fed Chair Janet Yellen from the annual FOMC retreat to Jackson Hole, WY, and while the week began without analysts expecting much if any news developing from the Fed presidents, we have actually been hearing much more hawkish rhetoric regarding interest rates. Presidents George, Dudley, Williams and Lockhart have all commented they’d be in favor of a rate hike sooner rather than later.
This puts a tighter focus on Yellen’s comments tomorrow, especially with a relative dearth of other economic news in this late-summer swoon of market activity.
Mark Vickery
Senior Editor