Initial Jobless Claims (week ended 9/7/2013)

– New Claims (seasonally adjusted)  292,000. Previous 323,000

– 4-week Moving Average  321,000

– New Claims (unadjusted) totaled 228,399 in the week ending September 7, a decrease of 40,250 from the previous week.

The problem with the data is that two states which according to the Department of Labor were one large state and one small state had retooled their computer networks and did not have accurate data.

To someone such as myself who writes every day about how to interpret macroeconomic fundamentals this is simply another case a government agency doing a poor job of data reporting.  This is not as bad as the poor job the BEA does on reporting GDP.

Import and Export Prices  (August 2013)

– Export Prices Month/Month -0.5%

– Export Prices Year/Year   -1.1%

– Import Prices Month/Month  0.0%

– Import Prices Year/Year   -0.4%

Prices are likely restrained by lowering global demand as restrained GDP growth becomes a worldwide phenomenon.