9 of 50 states guess their initial jobless claims and the S and P futures launch

Initial jobless claims for the week ending 9/4/10 came in significantly better than expected. The S and P 500 futures launch even though the 20% of the states' results were based on a guess. Welcome to the U.S. Stock Market Carnival...

NOTE: so much for transparency...details of 9 states not reporting were not included in the official report. That data was released to reporters!!

Jobless Claims Drop

Wall Street Journal

Initial unemployment claims decreased by 27,000 to 451,000 in the week ended Sept. 4, the Labor Department said in its weekly report Thursday. New claims for the previous week, ended Aug. 28, were revised upward to 478,000 from 472,000.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected new claims would decline by a mere 2,000.

The four-week moving average, which aims to smooth volatility in the data, fell by 9,250 to 477,750. The prior week's average was revised to 487,000.

A Labor Department economist said Thursday that claims data for nine states were estimated due to office closures for Labor Day, but he believes most of those estimates are on target.
WSJ Article

 

Bloomberg

Holiday

For the latest reporting week, nine states didn’t file claims data to the Labor Department in Washington because of the federal holiday earlier this week, a Labor Department official told reporters. As a result, California and Virginia estimated their figures and the U.S. government estimated the other seven, the official said. Bloomberg article