Stock Market Update

The S&P 500 futures are up 27 points and are trading 0.4% above fair value, the Nasdaq 100 futures are up 118 points and are trading 0.5% above fair value, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are up 163 points and are trading 0.4% above fair value.

Initial jobless claims for the week ending November 16 decreased by 6,000 to 213,000 (Briefing.com consensus 221,000). Continuing jobless claims for the week ending November 9 increased by 36,000 to 1.908 million. That is the fist reading above 1.900 million since November 2021.

The key takeaway from the report is that the rising trend for continuing jobless claims connotes a softening labor market whereby it has become more challenging to find a new job after being laid off.

The Philadelphia Fed Index checked in at -5.5 for November (Briefing.com consensus 7.0) following a 10.3 reading for October. The dividing line between expansion and contraction is 0.0, so the November reading suggests manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia Fed region contracted in November.