Overview
- Continuing claims fell by 19,000 to 1.884 million, pointing to stable insured unemployment.
- The four-week average declined to about 205,000, the lowest since January 2024 and a cleaner signal than the weekly move.
- Economists caution that year-end seasonal adjustment noise makes a single week’s decline hard to interpret.
- Stocks gained after the release, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rising as Treasury yields moved higher.
- Futures pricing indicates a high probability that the Federal Reserve will hold rates at 3.5%–3.75% at its next meeting.