Initial Claims for the week ending Nov. 29 decreased 21,000 to 509,000 from the upwardly revised figure of 530,000 (+1,000) from last week, a -5.6% surprise from the 539,000 estimate.? This is the fourth consecutive week filings surpassed the half million mark.? California, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Missouri were states with the highest increase in initial claims filings, ranging from +10,882 to +5,820, cited from layoffs in manufacturing, service, automobile and construction industries.? The 4-week moving average was 524,500, the highest since December of 1982, the month proceeding the end of the 16 month recession in the early 1980s.? The 4-week average increased by 6,250 from the previous week's revised average of 518,250 (which was a 25 year high).? The number of persons continuing to receive unemployment benefits was 4,087,000 last week, a 26 year high, up 89,000 from the prior week, and was only 2,611,000 in the prior year.? The unemployment rate for November, to be released tomorrow at 8:30 AM EST, is expected to increase to 6.8% (Oct rate = 6.5%, +0.2% from September).

Factory Orders were reported to have fallen 5.1% in October, by $21.9 billion to $407.4 billion following a downwardly revised 3.1% decline in September (originally reported a 2.5% change), and came at a -13.33% surprise as analysts had expected a decline of 4.5%.? This yet another indication of a weak manufacturing sector which had suffered in this current recession, following Monday's release of the ISM Manufacturing Index, which stood at a 26 year low, along with excessive layoffs in the manufacturing industry cited in today's Initial Claims report. Over the past year, however, Factory Orders, increased 4.1% from the $4,225,812 level in October of 2007. ?Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 4.2% this month.? Shipments of manufactured durables decreased 3%, by $6.2 billion to $202.1 billion.? Unfilled orders decreased for the first time in 26 months by 0.6%, by $5.1 billion to $823.1 billion.? Inventories, which have been up for the past 15 of the last 16 months increased by 0.4%, by $1.5 billion to $341.3 billion.

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Unemployment Rate (12/05 at 8:30 AM EST)

Nonfarm Payrolls (12/05 at 8:30 AM EST)