Like clockwork, new Thursday morning Initial Jobless Claims have hit the tape this morning, and for the first time in 16 weeks we see a higher headline number than a lower number: 1.416 million Americans newly filed for unemployment in the past week, up 109K from the slightly upwardly revised 1.307 million reported the previous week.
These numbers, now going back as far as they do to the initial effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the U.S. labor market, suggest plenty of churn in hiring and firing over these past several months. In fact, since initial jobless claims shot up to more than 3 million in one week back in mid-March — followed by a week that more than doubled that all-time high to 6.87 million new claims — these weekly numbers have posted more than 80.7 million new jobless claims.
Yet when we look at Continuing Claims for the week previous to last (Continuing Claims data is from a week in arrears of Initial Claims), we see “only” 16.197 million claims for the week. This marks the 8th straight week of lower longer-term jobless claims numbers; we shall see if in a week or two these numbers start moving the other direction, as well.
It would stand to reason that the recent COVID-19 flare-ups in the South and Western U.S., thereby stalling the overall economic reopening, has led to a reversal in initial jobless claims figures for the time being. Further, as the pandemic continues to rage not only through highly populated states like California, Texas and Florida but also places like Alabama and Idaho, we may see a more profound impact on the domestic labor market in the weeks ahead.
And, as Steve Liesman on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” program this morning points out, these jobless claims from the U.S. government do not include those receiving aid under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, which currently provides benefits to an additional 13 million Americans who work as private contractors and other similar lines of employment. So if we look at 29 million people still out of work due to measures related to the pandemic, which is not going away anytime soon, this gives us a more sobering look at our labor market this year, and may affect the overall U.S. economy going forward.
Twitter TWTR missed earnings estimates badly ahead of today’s opening bell, posting a loss of $1.39 per share versus a loss of 2 cents expected, for a negative earnings surprise of around 6800%. It also was well under the year-ago earnings headline of 22 cents per share, and marks the social media giant’s third earnings miss in the past four quarters. Revenues of $683.4 million missed expectations by 4.8%. Yet shares are up 3.7% in today’s pre-market, adding onto 15% gains year to date.
AT&T T also posted Q2 earnings results during today’s pre-market, with results faring notably better: earnings of 83 cents per share beat the 78 cents in the Zacks consensus, though down from the 89 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Revenues, however, came in just under projections to $40.95 billion in the quarter, and below the $44.96 billion a year ago. Shares, which are down close to 23% year to date, are up marginally in the early session.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment Research
