Ahead of what could be a devastating new jobs report the stock markets are reeling from the news that Christmas sales were not all that hot.
Stocks pulled back Thursday after retailers released holiday sales reports that were worse than expected, raising concerns on Wall Street that the economy might be slowing more than thought.
Retail chains like Federated Department Stores Inc., Gap Inc., Limited Brands Inc., and Target Corp. all posted lackluster same-store sales during the key month of December. There were also scattered warnings in the sector that fourth-quarter profit will miss analysts’ projections.
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Economic data released during morning trading also put pressure on stocks, including the Institute of Supply Management’s services sector index for December, which showed growth in the non-manufacturing sector slowed from November.
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Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the number of laid-off workers filing unemployment claims reached its highest level since late November.
Yeah, those new jobless numbers were indeed sucky.
In the week ending Dec. 30, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 329,000, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 319,000. The 4-week moving average was 317,500, an increase of 1,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 316,250.
the economists got a clue most people taint doing so well?
will be interesting to seel how my sales do this year.
Gee, I would have thought that Christmas sales would have been better with all those patriotic Americans doing their part to follow Bush’s advice to go shopping. War weary, I guess.
I’m in that number of new claims, and yes, it does suck here.
Try living in the UK – our (recorded claimants, which severely underestimate actual unemployment) jobless totals are more than twice yours as a proportion of the population, and the cost of living is higher, by and large.