Weekly Unemployment Up!

The weekly number of new people filing claims for unemployment rose today, which was not good news. In many respects, what is worse is the fact that the rolling four-week number has been moving upwards steadily for the past several weeks. On the other hand, productivity was reported today to be up, as employers try to get the max with the least! From past periods when we have had high unemployment, we have generally seen the unemployment rate rise during the first couple of months of the year before beginning a more favorable decline in March. I think that also will be the case this year. The stock market, however, is not showing much foresight these days and is reacting to what I consider to be yesterday’s news about unemployment. Once again, we shall see what we shall see. Ed