Fewer Americans file for jobless benefits
Fewer Americans than forecast filed for unemployment benefits last week, with applications hovering just above a four-decade low, a Labor Department report showed Thursday.
Claims for benefits decreased by 1,000 to 234,000 (the forecast was 245,000) in the week ended Saturday.
The current level of claims is the lowest since they reached a 44-year low of 227,000 in the week ended Feb. 25. Applications for jobless benefits remain firmly entrenched in a down-trend since breaking below the 300,000 level in March 2015, consistent with a tightening labor market that's put a premium on experienced workers and shows employers are still unwilling to pare headcounts.
The four-week average of initial claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, fell to 247,250 from 250,250 in the prior week.
-- Bloomberg News
Consumer sentiment highest since 2000
Consumer sentiment advanced to a three-month high in April as Americans' optimism about their current financial situation and the economy reached the strongest point since 2000, University of Michigan survey data showed Thursday.
Preliminary sentiment index rose to 98 (the forecast was 96.5) from 96.9 in March. The current conditions gauge, which measures Americans' perceptions of their personal finances, increased to 115.2, the highest since November 2000, from 113.2 the prior month.
Americans have kept up a solid run of optimism, supported by a labor market that's still humming and confidence that growth-positive policies will take shape under the Trump administration. Some 52 percent of respondents to the Michigan survey reported that their finances had recently improved, the highest share since 2000. The more favorable assessment reflected higher incomes and wealth, as well as low prices.
The report hinted that households would respond to greater optimism by making big purchases. Perceptions of favorable conditions for purchases of durable goods were cited by 82 percent of respondents, the largest share since 2005.
Nevertheless, the university's expectations measure remains divided along party lines, as 69 percent of Republicans cited favorable news about employment and economic policies, compared with only 28 percent among Democrats.
-- Bloomberg News
Wholesale inflation fell 0.1% in March
WASHINGTON -- Inflation at the wholesale level slid last month, pulled down by falling energy prices.
The Labor Department said Thursday that its producer price index, which measures inflation pressures before they reach consumers, fell 0.1 percent in March, the first drop since August. Wholesale prices rose 0.3 percent in February and 0.6 percent in January. Producer prices were up 2.3 percent in March from a year earlier, the sharpest annual increase in five years.
Energy prices tumbled 2.9 percent, including an 8.3 percent drop in gasoline.
But excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core wholesale inflation was unchanged in March and is up just 1.6 percent over the past year.
"In short, the headline data were held down by the energy component, but the core data were relatively weak as well," Jim O'Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a research note. "Even so, the core measures have accelerated a bit over the past year."
The Federal Reserve's target rate for annual inflation is 2 percent. For several years after the recession ended in 2009, inflation remained below that level. But a strengthening economy has begun to lift prices.
In part because of signs of rising inflation, the Fed last month raised interest rates for the second time in three months and forecast two more increases this year.
-- The Associated Press
30-year fixed mortgage rate at 4.08%
WASHINGTON -- Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell for a fourth straight week, with the benchmark 30-year rate marking a new low for the year.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the rate on 30-year fixed-rate home loans declined to 4.08 percent this week from 4.10 percent last week. That brought the rate under its previous 2017 low of 4.09 percent reached on Jan. 19. The 30-year rate stood at 3.58 percent a year ago and averaged 3.65 percent in 2016, the lowest level in records dating to 1971.
The rate on 15-year mortgages eased to 3.34 percent from 3.36 percent last week.
Dimming investor confidence drove prices of long-term Treasury bonds higher over the past week. That pushed their yields lower. Bond yields move opposite to prices and influence long-term mortgage rates. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note tumbled to 2.24 percent Wednesday from 2.33 percent a week earlier. It rose to 2.26 percent Thursday morning.
To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., surveys lenders across the country between Monday and Wednesday each week. The average doesn't include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.
The average fee for a 30-year mortgage was unchanged this week at 0.5 point. The fee on 15-year loans also remained at 0.5 point.
-- The Associated Press
EPA awaits data on Lake Michigan spill
PORTAGE, Ind. -- Federal officials are awaiting more test results to determine whether a potentially carcinogenic chemical entered Lake Michigan during a wastewater spill at a U.S. Steel plant in northern Indiana.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Rachel Bassler says testing Tuesday and Wednesday found no hexavalent chromium in the lake near the spill site in Portage, Ind., about 30 miles east of Chicago.
She says preliminary results are expected Thursday on about 100 more water samples.
Tuesday's spill caused by a pipe failure allowed wastewater containing hexavalent chromium from an electroplating process to enter a tributary 100 yards from Lake Michigan.
A water utility stopped drawing water from the lake and three beaches at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and one in adjacent Ogden Dunes have been closed as a precaution.
-- The Associated Press
Business on 04/14/2017