U.S. Job Claims Rose Slightly Last Week, Stocks Drop, Factory Activity Up

       The U.S. markets were down after the jobless report-there had been some concern overnight as well over China's drop in PMI.

       "The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week, while a separate reading on U.S. manufacturing activity showed a slight improvement in August."

       "The weaker-than-expected weekly jobless claims suggested the labor market is healing too slowly to make much of a dent in the unemployment rate."

       "Initial claims for state unemployment benefits (explain this) rose 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 372,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That was the highest level in five weeks."

       http://www.cnbc.com/id/48762715

      CNBC gave us the usual media spin about how this "keeps pressure on President Obama." Yeah, we had 4000 more jobless claims than expected so let's privatize Medicare, raise taxes on 95% over Americans to finance tax cuts for Ryan, Romney and the other Right wing wealthy fat cats, and let's ban abortion for rape victims. That will turn the economy around.

      Sorry! LOL. I just have so little patience left for the idea that the economy is all the President's fault and that giving Paul Ryan control of the White House as well as the House is going to turn things around. Has anyone noticed that the Ryan House is less popular than the President by 450%?

      "The report on jobless claims did have a silver lining, however."

      "The data cover the same week looked at by the government for its monthly measure of employment, and showed a slight drop in layoffs from the survey week last month, which is a mildly positive signal for hiring in August."

     "The four-week moving average for new claims, a measure of labor market trends, was 368,000 last week. That was a slight increase from the prior week, but still 2.1 percent lower than in the second week of July."

     "That week, the government surveyed employers and concluded 163,000 new jobs were created in July — an improvement from the prior three months though the unemployment rate still ticked higher to 8.3 percent."

     "The government will release its employment report for August on Sept. 7, and policymakers at the Fed will scrutinize the data for signs the economy is improving."

     As to the question of Fed easing, the irony is that for those who want more easing they're almost in a position of rooting against the numbers. The Fed minutes showed that they will do more easing unless the economy improves. However, as WOJ points out, that depends how you define improvement.

     He argued that the uptick we've seen in the last month may be enough-despite how modest it has been. Indeed,, a statement by your favorite inflation hawk at the Fed himself, James Bullard, confirms that at least some at the Fed see it this way:

     "Bullard said economic data has changed since the Fed meeting on July 31 and Aug. 1, when the central bank's Open Market Committee indicated more stimulus would "be warranted fairly soon" unless the economy improved."

      "He labeled those minutes as "stale" and said if growth continues around 2 percent for the remainder of the year, the Fed likely will remain on the sidelines."

      http://www.cnbc.com/id/48762176/

      This is a pretty sobering definition of improving and it bears out WOJ's suggestion. Let's hope Bullard's is the minority view-he is something of an outlier as being partiucarly hawkish.

       Yet there are some "green shoots" though the key words are "very modest" green shoots. Some are beginning to believe that the housing market is coming back now.

      Another headline, hot of the presses, bears it out-the numbers show that new home sales rose 3.6% in July but prices fell. This is the idea-that sales are going to ramp as demand is coming back into the market but that prices will still be weak.

     http://www.cnbc.com/id/48763349