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Today’s 4-1-1

4 Things Worth Reading:

 

 

 

1 Data Summary:

    • Initial jobless claims came in at 331K vs consensus estimate of 337K.  This brought the 4 week average to 334K. The data here has flat-lined for the last few months and is consistent with a modestly improving labor market.

 

  • Unit labor costs were negative at -1.6% while productivity came in at 3.2%.  This could explain why the labor market isn’t seeing big signs of improvement.  Employers are getting more out of their workers for lower costs.

1 Pretty Picture:

  • CitiBank provides the Altman Z-score (a measure of default probability) for global regions.  Using this metric, maybe emerging markets aren’t as badly positioned as many people assume?  From Value Walk: 

z_score

 

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