Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
On the bright side, durable goods orders increased slightly.
Separately, the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 8,000 to 470,000 last week, after rising for three weeks in a row.
Economists had forecast claims dipping to 450,000 from a previously reported 482,000 for the prior week, which had been elevated due to the processing of a backlog of applications from the holidays.
Moral: Don’t ask economists to pick the number of the day. (I know, that’s not fair. Economists and meteorologists are the only two disciplines graded on their ability to predict the future, rather than to explain the past.)
