Claims fall to lowest since February but Labor Day skews the figure

Initial jobless claims fell to 216k from 229k and that was well below expectations of 233k and the lowest since February. The 4 week average fell to 229k from 238k as a print of 250k dropped out of the calculation. Continuing claims did fall back under 1.7mm to 1.68mm from 1.72mm.

Bottom line, as the claims data was for the week ended September 2^nd, the Labor Day holiday most likely skewed the number so I’d wait for next week’s report to get more of a clean number. Bond yields initially moved higher again on the report but have backed off from that as the holiday reality maybe is realized.