In the week ended November 7, initial claims dropped by 12 000 from an upwardly revised 514 000 to 502 000, while an outcome of 510 000 was expected. Also continuing claims, which are reported with an extra week lag, surprised on the downside of expectations. In the week ended October 31, initial claims dropped from an upwardly revised 5 770 000 to 5 631 000, significantly below the consensus. This outcome confirms again that fewer workers are losing their jobs, which might translate in a slower rate of decline in payrolls in November.
EMU: industrial production rises for the fifth straight month
In September, euro zone industrial production rose by 0.3% M/M, while the consensus was looking for an increase by 0.5% M/M. The previous figure was however upwardly revised from 0.9% M/M to 1.2% M/M. Looking at the details, improvements were seen in capital goods (1.7% M/M), non-durable consumer goods (1.1% M/M) and intermediate goods (0.6% M/M), while durable consumer goods (-6.0% M/M) and energy (-2.1% M/M) dropped significantly. This was already the fifth straight increase in euro zone industrial production, which raises expectations that third quarter GDP was boosted by a strong performance of the industrial sector.
