Jobless Claims Data Tops the List
Markets are watching weekly unemployment claims even more closely than usual.
Thursday’s data includes the weekly claims report, at 8:30 a.m. ET, followed by the Philadelphia Fed survey and leading indicators, both at 10 a.m.
“From a macro standpoint, given the Fed’s focus on the job market, it will be the claims data and the Philly Fed employment component,” said John Canally, investment strategist and economist at LPL Financial. The Fed’s latest round of quantitative easing is aimed at helping the housing market through mortgage purchases and creating the economic conditions that would lead to more job growth.
The claims report is expected to show 373,000 new claims, and is the first since the Fed announced its plan last week to buy $40 billion in mortgage securities a month.
Before the U.S. data, markets will first be digesting the results of a Spanish bond offering. “If it doesn’t go well, that pushes Spain to ask for help. If it does go well, they buy some time” before having to request aid, Canally said.
Stocks closed slightly higher Wednesday, after Japan announced a new bond buying plan and U.S. home sales data came in much better than expected.
The big action Wednesday was in the oil market, where crude continued its selloff. WTI crude fell 3.5 percent to $91.98 per barrel, and is down more than 7 percent for the week. The selloff came after the Fed’s QE3 announcement last week helped lift West Texas Intermediate to $100 briefly.
“I think it was caused by something relatively technical,” said Edward Morse, head of commodities research at Citigroup, of the selloff. On Monday, oil dropped very quickly in a mini flash crash in the final hour of trading. Since then, it continued its decline. News headlines about Saudi Arabia increasing production to 10 million barrels a day, and comments from the White House that it would consider using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve if prices go too high weighed on the market. |
发表于 2012-9-20 00:23
| 
