It’s been a few years since traders were so optimistic about the year ahead in the United States.

Initial jobless claims were slightly better than expected at 338K compared to 345K consensus. The number of first-time claims improved by 42K after two consecutive weeks of worrisome numbers. The solid number this week is evidence that season factors caused a temporary blip.

The jobless claims report has been suspect since September when computer problems in California began to skew the numbers. Since then, holidays, the government shutdown and other factors have made the weekly data point an unreliable indicator.

In the weeks ahead, the Fed and US dollar bulls would like to see evidence of claims trending below 300K.