| The KUIK Morning Market Report for Thursday, March 6: | |||||||
| Markets are up. | |||||||
| Index | Direction | Change | Units | Last | Time | Change | |
| Dow | Up | 75 | points | 16,436 | 6:55 AM | ||
| S&P500 | Up | 0.42% | percent | 1,882 | 7.93 | ||
| Nasdaq Composite | Up | 0.30% | percent | 4,371 | 13.23 | ||
| 30 Year Treasury | Up | 4 | Basis Points | 3.68 | Annual Yield | ||
| The Labor Department reports the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits fell by 26,000 to 323,000 in the week ended March 1, marking the lowest level since late November. Economists expected 335,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis. Claims have been distorted by a harsh winter . Two weeks ago, claims jumped to their highest level since mid-December. Bad weather deterred some people from filing or caused a backlog because state governments were temporarily closed. | |||||||
| After a jump in January, layoffs pulled back last month, hitting the lowest number for a February since 2000, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. There were 42,000 announced layoffs in February, down from 45,000 in January and 55,000 in February 2013. The financial sector led planned layoffs in February due to cutbacks in mortgage lending as well as a shift away from branch banking toward mobile banking. | |||||||
| Serving the West Side first, I am Bill Roller of BR Capital for AM 1360 KUIK. | |||||||
| http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jobless-claims-decline-by-26000-to-323000-2014-03-06 | |||||||
| http://www.marketwatch.com/story/planned-layoffs-fall-in-february-challenger-2014-03-06 | |||||||
| For today’s Morning Market Report click to listen-> | |||||||