Updated:
Initial U.S. jobless claims are due Thursday, Oct. 8, alongside remarks from Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller, an updated Atlanta Fed growth estimate and a Treasury auction of 30-year bonds. The calendar puts a weekly labor-market gauge at the center of a day that also includes consumer-sentiment data, according to Investing.com and a separate weekly schedule published by Kiplinger.
Investing.com listed a forecast of 200,000 new claims for the week, compared with 197,000 in the prior report. The Labor Department’s Oct. 1 release recorded 197,000 seasonally adjusted initial claims for the week ended Sept. 26; it revised the previous week’s figure to 198,000. The upcoming number is a forecast, not a reported result.
Claims forecast follows a 197,000 reading
Initial claims count applications for unemployment insurance from people filing for the first time. The Labor Department describes the weekly measure as an indicator of emerging labor-market conditions. Because weekly readings can fluctuate, the four-week average is also tracked: it stood at 200,000 in the Sept. 26 report, down from a revised 202,500 the week before.
Investing.com’s calendar separately put continuing claims at a forecast 1.71 million, against a prior reading of 1.701 million. Continuing claims track people who have already filed an initial application and remain eligible for benefits, making them a distinct measure from new filings. The figures scheduled for Thursday cover different stages of unemployment-insurance claims and should not be treated as interchangeable.
Kiplinger identified the claims report as covering the week ended Oct. 3 and listed its release for 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Investing.com’s calendar gave the same time. The report will update the weekly series after the Labor Department’s latest published reading for the week ended Sept. 26.
Other scheduled releases and market events
The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow estimate is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Eastern. Investing.com listed it at 3.7%, unchanged from its previous estimate. GDPNow is a running estimate of current-quarter economic growth, rather than a government GDP release or a formal forecast by the Federal Reserve’s monetary-policy committee.
Investing.com also listed a 30-year Treasury bond auction at noon, with the previous auction yield shown as 5.308%. Treasury auctions offer investors an opportunity to submit bids for government debt; the result can provide information about demand and the borrowing rate on the securities sold. The calendar does not state what the auction’s yield or demand will be.
Other items on the schedule include wholesale trade sales and inventories at 9 a.m., a natural-gas storage report at 9:30 a.m., and four- and eight-week Treasury bill auctions at 10:30 a.m. Investing.com listed the prior wholesale-sales reading at 0.8% and forecast wholesale inventories at 0.7%, matching the previous figure. For natural-gas storage, it listed a forecast increase of 79 billion cubic feet, compared with 64 billion previously.
Waller remarks and Fed balance-sheet data
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller is scheduled to speak at 3:30 a.m. Eastern, according to Investing.com. The calendar preview does not provide details about his topic or indicate whether he will discuss the economic outlook or monetary policy. Any interpretation of the remarks will depend on what he says, rather than the event listing itself.
At 3:30 p.m. Eastern, the calendar lists the Federal Reserve’s weekly balance-sheet report and reserve balances held by depository institutions at Federal Reserve Banks. Investing.com gave the previous balance-sheet total as $6.743 trillion and reserve balances as $2.881 trillion. These are scheduled updates, not advance indications of Thursday’s results.
Consumer sentiment also on Thursday’s calendar
Kiplinger’s weekly preview additionally lists the preliminary University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index for October at 10 a.m. Eastern. It reported that September’s survey showed consumers worried about current conditions and less optimistic about future conditions amid energy-price concerns. The preliminary October reading will provide another survey-based snapshot, separate from the claims data and official measures of employment.
Together, Thursday’s agenda spans applications for unemployment benefits, a consumer survey, a real-time growth estimate, central-bank remarks and government debt sales. The available calendar reporting does not establish how markets will respond, and it does not include the results of any of the events scheduled for Oct. 8.
