INITIAL JOBLESS CLAIMS RISE

St. Louis Fed

Initial jobless claims filed in the week ended March 29 were 326,000, according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, up from 310,000 in the previous week and above the consensus Wall Street forecast of 319,000.

Continuing claims for unemployment insurance filed in the week ended March 22 were 2.836 million, up from a downwardly-revised 2.814 million the week before but below the consensus forecast of 2.843 million.

"While accompanying historical revisions have modestly shifted the profile of the claims data and despite the upward surprise on the headline index, we continue to see claims on a more positive footing over the past several weeks," says Gennadiy Goldberg, a U.S. strategist at TD Securities.

"The 4-week moving average of the jobless claims data remained nearly flat despite the jump latest week's jump, edging to 320,000 from 319,000 - remaining near the lowest levels since October 2013."

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