December 18, 2003
MORE LIES (via John Resnick):
Treasuries Mixed After Jobless Drop (Ellen Freilich, 12/18/03, Reuters)
U.S. Treasuries were mixed on Thursday after a surprising drop in U.S. jobless claims in the latest week suggested an improvement in the labor market.Posted by Orrin Judd at December 18, 2003 2:28 PMJade Zelnik, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital Markets, said the level of claims, now in line with the lower trend of early November suggested that layoffs have slowed enough to support payroll gains of over 100,000 per month.
The Labor Department said first-time claims for state unemployment aid, a rough guide to the pace of layoffs, plunged 22,000 to 353,000 in the week ended Dec. 13 from a revised 375,000 in the prior week. Wall Street economists had expected claims to drop to 365,000.
And another collective "Damn It!" was heard in Dem camps everywhere....except, perhaps, Mr. Kerry's office where the response wouldn't be polite to repeat here.
Posted by: John Resnick at December 18, 2003 2:46 PMHowever, if one looks at the unemployment situation state-by-state, it's clear that Bush will have his work cut out for him in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan, barring some unusually sudden surge in employment in those states.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at December 19, 2003 1:34 PMMichael--he'll win each by 10+%
Posted by: oj at December 19, 2003 3:51 PM