US DATA: Initial jobless claims unch at 351k in Feb 18 employment
survey wk, slightly below expectations and down 4k from 355k level in
the Jan 14 employment survey week. Claims in the prev wk rev up to 351k
vs 348k originally. Labor analyst said there were three states estimated
due to Monday holiday–California and Virginia submitted their own,
Hawaii was estimated by Labor. Seasonal factors expected NSA claims to
fall by about 20k, very close to the actual NSA decline of 19,888 to
345,216, thus the unch SA reading. 4-wk moving avg -7k to 359k in Feb 18
wk, low since 355,500 in the March 22, 2008 wk. Cont claims -52k to
3.392m in Feb 11 wk, low since 3.337m in the August 9, 2008 wk.