The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the first time fell from 12-month highs at 249k to 233k last week...

Source: Bloomberg

The non-seasonally-adjusted claims data plunged and is basically unchanged over one and two years...

Source: Bloomberg

...as it appears the Texas storm impact is fading...

Source: Bloomberg

With Michigan and Texas dominating the drop in initial claims...

But, continuing jobless claims rose to 1.875mm Americans - the highest since Nov 2021...

Source: Bloomberg

...and smoothing for the week to week noise - the 4-week moving average of initial claims also reached a new cycle high.

One key thing to note that we warned about...

Is this bad news or good news?

Stocks seem to think 'good' news.

Imagine what happens next week if CPI is hotter than expected?