Initial Claims decreased to 388,000, the lowest level since July 2008, for the week ending 12/25, against the expected decrease to 410,000, after decreasing to 422,000, the revised level for the previous week. The 4-week moving average decreased to 414,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 426,500. Seasonally adjusted insured unemployment from the prior week, ending on 12/18, was 4,128,000, an increase of 57,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 4,071,000. Seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate from the week ending on 12/18, was 3.3%, an increase of 0.1% from the previous week’s unrevised figure of 3.2%.
Pending Home Sales are expected to increase by 1.5% today at 10:00 AM EST. The Pending Home Sales Index had increased 10.4% in October to an index value of 89.3 following a 1.8% decrease in September. The index had decreased by 20.5% on a year-over-year basis.
Crude inventories are expected today at 10:30 AM EST. For the week ending December 17, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories had decreased by 5.3 million barrels from the previous week to 340.7 million barrels and were above the upper limit of the average range for that time of year. U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 14.9 million barrels per day during this period, 48 thousand barrels per day below the previous week’s average. U.S. crude oil imports were averaging 8.7 million barrels per day, up by 1.1 million barrels per day from the previous week.
Upcoming Releases
Pending Home Sales (12/30 at 10:00 AM EST)
Crude Inventories (12/30 at 10:30 AM EST)
Non Farm Productivity (12/03 at 8:30 AM EST)
ISM Manufacturing Index (12/03 at 10:00 AM EST)
