Economics Update

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H/t Calculated Risk

It's Jobless Thursday, and initial jobless claims fell by 5,000 to 457,000, which is less bad, you need to be under 400K for any real job growth, and the less volatile 4 week moving average fell, though continuing claims fell slightly.

Meanwhile, the CPI was flat in February, with a 0.1% increase in the core inflation rate, which omits food and energy.

In real estate, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate is basically unchanged, at 4.96%.

It will start going up once the TALF expires in a few months.

Finally, oil fell and the dollar rose, probably as a correction for the large swings in response to yesterday's Federal Reserve statement.