Weekly jobless claims come in ahead of forecasts

Weekly jobless claims in the States continued to drift lower last week, but only slightly once again and by less than economists had forecast.

According to the Department of Labor, initial unemployment claims for the week ending on 27 June decreased by 55,000 to reach 1.427m (consensus: 1.341m).

The four-week moving average meanwhile fell by 117,500 to 1,504,750.

Secondary unemployment claims on the other hand, those which are not being filed for the first time, rose by 59,000 to 19.290m over the week ending on 20 June.

"The jobless claims data are being inflated by backlogs of claims, but the only marginal fall in initial claims last week, to 1,427,000 from 1,482,000, is a sign that the recovery might be slowing," said Michael Pearce, senior US economist at Capital Economics.

"With the high-frequency data suggesting that activity is beginning to stall and in some cases go into reverse, the pace of job gains will be much weaker over the coming months, with the recovery likely to be bumpy."