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JOBLESS CLAIMS AND PRODUCTIVITY MARCH HIGHER

I’m going to dabble in some fundamentals this morning even though I know the dollar implosion is just about the only thing driving any market anymore.  We had some rather mixed news this morning.  On the jobs front we saw a move higher in jobless claims to 457K vs expectations of 443K.  Continuing claims moved down 42,000 to 4.340 MM.

We also got productivity and unit labor cost data this morning and both point to continued strength in the earnings picture.  Productivity jumped to 1.9% vs expectations of 1.7%.  Unit labor costs actually declined -0.1%, a sign that companies are staying trim and choosing to protect their margins as opposed to expand operations via hiring.

All in all, the move higher in claims is a marginal negative while the productivity data shows continued strength in corporate earnings.

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