Thursday, June 11, 2009

More Positive News


Thursday morning reports showed jobless claims fell last week and retail sales ticked higher in May.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell by 24,000 last week to 601,000, a much sharper drop than expected. This comes after the May jobs report showed an unexpectedly small number of job losses.

Meanwhile, retail sales rose 0.5 percent in May, the first gain in three months, boosted by rising gasoline prices. April sales were revised to a 0.2-percent drop, half the 0.4-percent decline initially reported.

Lastly, business inventories shrunk by 1.1 percent in April, the eighth straight month that businesses have pared back their inventories.

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