Initial Jobless Claims were much better than expected at 451k vs the forecast of 470k and down from 478k last week (revised up by 6k). Labor Day weekend may have had an impact on the seasonal adjustment but we’ll have to see next week to what extent. Either way though, the market will take a downward move to the lowest since early July in light of the worrisome rise over the past month. Continuing Claims were above expectations but little changed with the prior week while Extended Benefits were up a net 30k. Also giving a boost to the futures was the less than expected July Trade Deficit of $42.8b vs the est of $47b which may lead to a boost to economists Q3 GDP estimate of as much as .4 of a % point as exports rose 1.8% while imports fell by 2.1%. In contrast, trade was a big drag on Q2 GDP.
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