Stock Market Update

The S&P 500 futures are down four points and are trading fractionally below fair value, the Nasdaq 100 futures are down 12 points and are trading 0.1% below fair value, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures are down 51 points and are trading 0.1% below fair value.

Initial jobless claims for the week ending November 30 increased by 9,000 to 224,000 (Briefing.com consensus 213,000) and continuing jobless claims for the week ending November 23 decreased by 25,000 to 1.871 million.

The key takeaway from the report is that the totality of the report isn't signaling any major changes with respect to labor market trends, which have connoted some softening but no real breakage on the employment front.

The October trade deficit narrowed to $73.8 billion (Briefing.com consensus -$75.1 billion) from an upwardly revised $83.8 billion (from -$84.4 billion) in September. The improvement results from exports being $4.3 billion less than September exports and imports being $14.3 billion less than September imports.

The key takeaway from the report is that it reflects overall weakness in global trade activity in October.