Jobless Claims Low, Job Cuts High

For whatever it's worth -- not a lot -- US jobless claims ticked up during Thanksgiving week. Thursday's initial filers headline was 224,000 for the week ending November 30. That was ahead of consensus, which was looking for 215,000. The prior week's print was revised up from 213,000 to 215,000, just as the week before that was revised 2,000 higher in the second estimate to -- wait for it -- 215,000. (The sarcastic among you might fairly ask if we're just making this stuff up. "Just call it 2