US initial jobless claims unchanged as economy shows resilience; inflation ticks up

• Financial

On Thursday, US Labor Department data had unveiled that the number of Americans filing for first-time state unemployment benefits had clung on to a pre-pandemic level last week, as labor market has reportedly tightened further with consumers spending, the lifeblood of US economy accountable for roughly a 66.0 per cent of entire US economic activity, rising solidly, illustrating a cerulean comely on labor market as the economy heads to a strong finish to 2021.

Aside from that, other economic data released earlier in the day had unfurled that US Consumer Spending surged 0.6 per cent last month, while US factory output remained buoyant as concerns over a newly identified pandemic variant had eased.

On top of that, new orders for US core capital goods fell marginally last month, while shipments rose 0.3 per cent. Nonetheless, the US Federal Reserve’s key inflation indicator, Core PCE (Personal Consumption Expenditure) price index, feathered up 0.5 per cent further in November, while US inflation soared 4.7 per cent over past twelve months through November on a year-on-year basis, nearly 2-1/2-fold of US Fed’s target of 2.0 per cent.

US initial jobless claims hover below pre-pandemic level

According to US Labor Department data, US initial claims for state unemployment benefit remained unchanged at 205,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis over the week that ended on December 18, which has been well in an alignment with analysts’ estimate.

Meanwhile, addressing to a roaring US economy which appears to have shrugged off weaknesses witnessed in the third-quarter, a chief economist at Grant Thornton in Chicago, Diane Swonk said, “The economy was running on all cylinders in the fourth quarter.

The bad news is that much of the weakness associated with the spread of the Omicron variant is still ahead of us. Some of the weakness could show up in data for December, but the bulk of the weakness will show up as canceled events, travel and less spending on services in January”.