It's Thursday ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So, it's tThursday, and so time for the weekly unemployment report.

It's better than forecast with initial claims falling by 7,000 to 227,000, beating forecasts of 235,000, and continuing claims fell by 7,000 to 1.864 million.

Additionally, retail sales for July were stronger than forecast.

Initial applications for US unemployment benefits fell for a second week to the lowest level since early July, despite a recent pullback in hiring.

Initial claims decreased by 7,000 to 227,000 in the week ended Aug. 10, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 235,000 applications.

………

Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving unemployment benefits, also declined, to 1.86 million, in the week ended Aug. 3.


A separate report from the Commerce Department Thursday showed that US retail sales accelerated in July by the most since early 2023 in a broad advance. Sales were boosted by a sharp snapback in car sales after a cyberattack on auto dealerships earlier this year, but electronics and appliances also posted gains, pointing to a consumer that’s holding up despite higher borrowing costs.

I think that we can be reasonably certain that we won't be in an indisputable recession in the next few months.

As to what this all means, it means whatever the Federal Reserve Board of Governor thinks that it means.

So basically, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.