The Financial Times:
US jobless claims at eight-month high. By Shannon Bond in New York: The US labour market is faltering again, with new unemployment claims rising last week to their highest level in eight months. First-time claims rose by 43,000 to 474,000, according to data released by the US labour department on Thursday, compared with 410,000 forecast by analysts. The wobble in jobless claims, on top of slower growth in services, raises the risk of a stall in the US recovery such as that which drove the Federal Reserve to a fresh $600bn programme of asset purchases last summer.... A number of one-off factors pushed up jobless claims, including a spring break holiday at New York schools, an emergency benefits programme in Oregon and shutdowns at car manufacturers after the Japanese earthquake.
“The one good thing about the claims data was it was so far above perceived trend that it is clearly distorted and therefore of very limited value,” said Alan Ruskin, a strategist at Deutsche Bank...
