No Needles Were Moved
353,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, slightly higher than the previous week's upwardly-revised 349,000 level, which marked a pandemic-era low.
Consensus expected 350,000, so there were no surprises on the headline.
The four-week moving average fell to 366,500, another new "since March 14, 2020" low (figure below).
Continuing claims were 2.862 million for the week of August 14. That was higher than estimates. The market wanted 2.77 million.
The rise in initial claims
It really seems like everyone, including the economy, the government and individuals are all prudently waiting to see what happens after Delta is in the side view mirror.
Is there another deadly variant in the making?
I first heard of gamma yesterday and lambda is already circulating…lambda sounds similar to delta but gamma seemed maybe worse unfortunately.