US weekly initial jobless claims fall as investors’ angsts mount over hawkish Fed



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US weekly initial jobless claims fall as investors’ angsts mount over hawkish Fed

Amid a double whammy for global market participants stemming from an ultra-hawkish Fed alongside a relentless rise in inflation indicators, the US Labour Department’s data on US weekly jobless claims had added to another blow for investors, as the number of Americans filing for state unemployment benefits for the first time on their lives dipped last week.

Other data released earlier in the day had unveiled that US private payrolls rose by 235,000 positions last month, fanning the fires further for the traders who appeared to be bracing for a 50-bps (basis percentage point) rate-hike as early as by early-2023.

In the matter of the fact, latest upbeat data on US job market would only encourage the US Fed to stay on its ultra-hawkish rate-hike path aimed at taming a teetering inflation-surge. Nonetheless, yesterday’s Minutes for December 13-14 US Fed policy meet had unveiled that all Fed policymakers had agreed to hike rates gradually throughout this year.

Meanwhile, adding that the US Fed’s prediction on a plausible slowdown in US job market could not be vindicated at this standpoint, a senior economic advisor at PNC Financial in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Stuart Hoffman said, “Fed officials are expecting a slowing in the job market given the big increase in interest rates last year.

Right now, the labor market is too tight for the Fed, and job growth is too strong”.

US weekly initial jobless claims fall as labour market tightens

According to data from the US Labour Department, the number of Americans filing for state-unemployment benefits for the first time on their lives fell by 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 204,000 positions over the week that ended on December 19, the lowest level since end-September.

Aside from that, continuing claims dipped by 24,000 to 1.694 million over the week that ended on December 24 after jumping nearly an 11-month high of 1.718 million a week earlier.