US initial unemployment claims hold near record low
US jobless claims dipped last week, holding near their record lows.
According to the Department of Labor, initial unemployment claims for the week ending on 13 October fell by 5,000 to 210,000 (consensus: 211,000).
In parallel, the four-week moving average, which aims to smooth-out the variations in the data from one week to the next, increased by 2,000 to hit 211,750.
Secondary unemployment claims, those which are not filed for the first time and referencing the week before, slipped by 13,000 to 1.64m.
Meanwhile, initial claims figures for the week before last were revised up by 1,000 to 215,000.
Acting as a backdrop, on Wednesday afternoon, ex-US central bank chief, Alan Greenspan, told broadcaster CNBC the US jobs market was the 'tightest' that he had ever seen it.
His remarks came close on the heels of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting, which were released the nigh before, and which some economists said pointed to concerns among policymakers that record low unemployment, amid still strong economic growth, would eventually lead to undue inflation pressures further down the road as wage growth picked-up.
On that note, following Thursday's claims data, Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics commented: "we had expected to see at least some damage [from hurricane Michael] in today's report but it appears that people fleeing ahead of the storm didn't stop to make jobless claims.
"[...] The numbers likely won’t be clear of hurricane effects until the end of the month, by which point we think the underlying trend will have fallen to just 200K. We see no reason to expect a sustained upturn in claims; indeed, with labor demand rising faster than supply, we think the bar for layoffs is now very high."
As of 1359 BST, the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note was trading at its session lows, off by one basis point at 3.20%.