Update USA Employment 1st Time Claims
Employment jobless claims for 1st time requests continues to fall. Recent jobless claims were down another 12,000 for the week. The rate is now at 260,000 which is well below the 300,000 unofficial benchmark. Additionally, the 4-week average moved downward by 9,500 to 268,250. Continuing claims remained below $1.9 million.
Update USA Unemployment Rate
American unemployment rate for September came in in line within our forecast at 4.2%, but at the lower end of the most likely range. We are certainly not complaining as employment continues to improve. Total unemployed dropped by 331,000 to 6.8 million. Long-term unemployed remained unchanged at 1.7 million and the labor participation rate remained unchanged at 63.1%. The only negative news in employment was a drop in total non-farm employment by 33,000 but this was most likely the result of hurricanes impacting the food service industries.
USA Stock Consideration Change Report
American Eagle Outfitters returns to BUY consideration while Boise Cascade, Enova International, Michael Kors, Monarch Casino, Myers INdustries and Newpark Resources all join SELL consideration.
USA Stock Consideration Change Report
SPX Flow moves to SELL while Patterson-UTI Energy and EW Scripps join SELL WATCH.
Update Economic USA Housing
There is no doubt, the rate of increase in housing starts has slowed. You can see this in the first chart. Growth that started since 2010 appears to have taken a rest over the last several months and is struggling from lower supply numbers and higher prices. Prices increased by more than 5% from this time last year. Home sales remain above the previous year but have slowed by over 3% this month alone. Supply has increased most recently which potentially could ease pricing pressure.