Jan.16 The Department of Labor has released the initial claims in the week ending Jan.16 and the continued claims ending .9 (there is a delay of one week between both series).

Initial Jobless Claims: The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 482,000, an increase of 36,000 claims from the previous week’s revised figure of 446,000 revised from the initial 444,000 data.

4 week Moving Average: The…

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The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for December, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $353.0 billion, a decrease of 0.3 percent (±0.5%)* from the previous month, but 5.4 percent (±0.5%) above December 2008. Total sales for the 12 months of 2009 were down 6.2 percent (±0.2%) from 2008. Total sales for…

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Jan.9 The Department of Labor has released the initial claims in the week ending Jan.9 and the continued claims ending Jan.2.

Initial Jobless Claims: The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 444,000, an increase of 11,000 claims from the previous week’s revised figure of 433,000 revised from the initial 434,000 data.

4 week Moving Average: The 4-week moving average was 441,000, a decrease of…

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Fed’s Beige Book: Informal review by the Federal Reserve Banks of current economic conditions in their Districts

Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts indicated that while economic activity remains at a low level, conditions have improved modestly further, and those improvements are broader geographically than in the last report. Ten Districts reported some increased activity or improvement in conditions, while the remaining two–Philadelphia and Richmond–reported mixed conditions. The…

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The People’s Bank of China has decided to raise the RMB reserve requirement ratio for depository financial institutions by 0.5 percentage points as of Jan. 18, 2010. Small financial institutions such as rural credit cooperatives are temporarily exempted from the adjustment to strengthen financing for the agricultural sector and support preparations for spring farming.

Source: People’s Bank of China -…

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Acording to the BLS, Nonfarm payroll employment edged down (-85,000) in December, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 10.0 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment fell in construction, manufacturing, and wholesale trade, while temporary help services and health care added jobs.

The greenback is falling sharplpy, reaching 1.4415$ against the euro.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in the week ending ene.02, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 434,000 an increase of 1,000 from the previous week’s figure of 433,000 (revised from 432,000). The 4-week moving average was 450,250, a decrease of 16,500 from the previous week’s average of 460,500 (revised from 460,250).

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Source: Federal Reserve

Full Text: http://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomcminutes20091216.htm

Developments in Financial Markets and the Federal Reserve’s Balance Sheet
The Manager of the System Open Market Account reported on developments in domestic and foreign financial markets since the Committee’s November 3-4 meeting. Financial conditions generally had become somewhat more supportive of economic growth. There was little evidence of year-end funding pressures, although demand for Treasury bills with maturities…

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