Jobless Claims Likely Aided by Stormy Weather

Weekly Jobless Claims

Over recent weeks, we've tracked the jobless claims data trend rather closely, and we've noted the holiday and weather noise that have swayed the data. Last week again produced a monster storm that swept through the Midwest and iced up the Northeast, and so it is again questionable whether investors should bank on what would otherwise have been a solid positive driver for stocks.

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Jobless Claims Likely Aided by Stormy Weather

Weekly Jobless Claims for the period ended February 5, fell by 36K, to 383K. Drops toward and under the 400K mark have injected fuel for stock enthusiasts through the last six months, but today's release was received without excitement. Even given talk of an Egyptian shift in power, the S&P 500 is still fractionally lower at this hour. That's because the wild swings in the winter jobless claims are now understood to be influenced by this year's harsh weather, and we have a clear cut storm to point to for the latest dive.

The four-week moving average of jobless claims improved as well, dropping by 16K, to 415,500. However, the insured unemployment rate, which measured the period through January 29, remained at 3.1%; this figure depends less on the filing of paperwork by government counters of the unemployed, and so you should see it less impacted.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Jan. 22 were in Alaska (7.3 percent), Idaho (5.4), Montana (5.3), Wisconsin (5.3), Oregon (5.2), Pennsylvania (5.2), Puerto Rico (5.1), Rhode Island (4.9), Connecticut (4.7), and New Jersey (4.7).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Jan. 29 were in California (+12,274), Pennsylvania (+3,319), Massachusetts (+1,010), Wisconsin (+943), and Puerto Rico (+941), while the largest decreases were in North Carolina (-11,541), Georgia (-5,607), Alabama (-4,128), New Jersey (-3,037), and Tennessee (-2,950).



Article should interest investors in Paychex (Nasdaq: PAYX), Manpower (NYSE: MAN), Robert Half International (NYSE: RHI), 51Job Inc. (Nasdaq: JOBS), Monster World Wide (NYSE: MWW), Korn/Ferry International (NYSE: KFY), Administaff (NYSE: ASF), Kforce (Nasdaq: KFRC), TrueBlue (NYSE: TBI), Dice Holdings (NYSE: DHX), Kelly Services (Nasdaq: KELYA), SFN Group (NYSE: SFN), CDI Corp. (NYSE: CDI), Cross Country Healthcare (Nasdaq: CCRN), On Assignment (Nasdaq: ASGN), AMN Healthcare Services (NYSE: AHS), Barrett Business Services (Nasdaq: BBSI), Hudson Highland Group (Nasdaq: HHGP), StarTek (NYSE: SRT), RCM Technologies (Nasdaq: RCMT), VirtualScopics (Nasdaq: VSCP), American Surgical (OTC: ASRG.OB), Medical Connections (OTC: MCTH.OB), iGen Networks (OTC: IGEN.OB), St. Joseph (OTC: STJO.OB), General Employment Enterprises (NYSE: JOB), Total Neutraceutical (OTC: TNUS.OB), TeamStaff (Nasdaq: TSTF), Stratum (OTC: STTH.OB), Purespectrum (OTC: PSRU.OB), Corporate Resource Services (OTC: CRRS.OB), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Citigroup (NYSE: C), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), TD Bank (NYSE: TD), PNC Bank (NYSE: PNC), General Electric (NYSE: GE), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), Alcoa (NYSE: AA), American Express (NYSE: AXP), Boeing (NYSE: BA), Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), Chevron (NYSE: CVX), DuPont (NYSE: DD), Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS), Home Depot (NYSE: HD), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Kraft (NYSE: KFT), Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), 3M (NYSE: MMM), Merck (NYSE: MRK), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), AT&T (NYSE: T), Travelers (NYSE: TRV), United Technologies (NYSE: UTX), Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM). The day’s earnings included Deere (NYSE: DE), Tiffany (NYSE: TIF), China Cord Blood (NYSE: CO) and Frontline (NYSE: FRO).

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