(menafn – ecpulse)
Wall Street may start the day lower and join declines in European equities, as manufacturing reports from China and Europe signaled contraction in March, fueling concerns over the prospects of the global economic growth. Still, investors will track the weekly jobless claims in the U.S.
As of 06:35 a.m. in New York, futures expiring June 12 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.528 percent to 12,997 levels. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures slipped 0.644 percept to 1,388.50 levels.
The U.S. weekly jobless claims have been so far the key highlight of this year's economic calendar, giving more and more signs the job market continue to dust-off the unemployed, even if slower than analysts' had in mind.
If truth be told, the Labor Department's unemployment insurance weekly report is giving an early and convincing lead of improvement in the jobs markets. In the March 10 week, the initial jobless claims fell to a four-year low.
Analyst expect the initial jobless claim in the week ended March 17 will come around 350 thousand according to median estimates. Continuing claims is expected to tick up in the week ened March 10, around 3,380 thousand.
On March 9, the Department of labor said that U.S companies in February were able to add 227 thousand workers to the nonfarm payrolls, after hiring 284 thousand (revised from 243 thousand) in January. The unemployment rate stood at 8.3 percent, the lowest in almost three years.
Even as the jobless rate stands still at the lowest level in three years, employment gains are not strong enough to depress the elevated unemployment unless we watch a stronger yet healthier economic momentum throughout the rest of the year.
The Conference Board's leading indicators for February is due at 10:00 a.m. EST. The Canadian economy will be joining the session and Statistics Canada is due to release the retail sales report at 08:30 a.m. in Ottawa.
