Initial Claims decreased to 472,000, for the week ending 08/28, against the expected decrease to 473,000, after decreasing to 478,000, the revised level for the previous week. The 4-week moving average decreased to 485,500, from the previous week’s revised average of 488,000. Seasonally adjusted insured unemployment from the prior week, ending on 08/21, was 4,456,000, a decrease of 23,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 4,479,000. Seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate from the week ending on 08/21, was 3.5%, unchanged from the previous week’s unrevised figure of 3.5%. Tomorrow, the monthly employment situation is scheduled for release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at 8:30 AM EST and the unemployment rate is expected to increase to 9.6% for August from 9.5% recorded in July.
Nonfarm Productivity for the 2nd quarter was revised to a 1.8% decrease, against the preliminary estimates of a 0.9% decline. This was the largest such decline since the third quarter of 2006. Hours increased 3.5% and output increased 1.6%. From the second quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010, both productivity and output increased 3.7%; hours were unchanged. Nonfarm productivity increased by 3.9% in the first quarter of 2010, revised upward from 2.8%, after increasing by 6.3% and 7.8% in the 4th and 3rd quarters of 2009. Unit Labor Costs was revised upward to a 1.1% increase in the 2ndquarter, from preliminary estimates of a 0.2% increase, following a 3.7% decrease in the figure reported in the 1st quarter of 2010, revised further downward from the initial 1.3% decline.
Pending Home Sales are expected to decrease by 1.2% today at 10:00 AM EST. The Pending Home Sales Index had decreased 2.6% in June to an index value of 75.7 following a 30% increase in May. The index had decreased by 18.6% on a year-over-year basis.
Factory Orders for July are scheduled for release today at 10:00 AM EST, and are expected to increase by 0.4% following the June decrease of 1.2% to $406.4 billion.
Upcoming Releases
Pending Home Sales (09/02 at 10:00 AM EST)
Factory Orders (09/02 at 10:00 AM EST)
Unemployment Rate (09/03 at 8:30 AM EST)
ISM Services Index (09/03 at 10:00 AM EST)
