Read the highlights of this week’s commentary from Helios:
Initial jobless claims remain in the low-to-mid 200Ks with the latest release at 230K, which was up slightly from 225K and putting the 4-week moving average also at 230K, up from 219K in early November.
Consumer sentiment improved to 59.1 in the preliminary December release of the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment index, up from 56.8 in November. Both current conditions and future expectations improved with households being more optimistic about buying conditions for big ticket items such as cars and homes.
Factory orders rose 1.0% in October, ahead of expectations of a 0.7% gain and a larger gain than the 0.3% gain in September.
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