Here come initial jobless claims ...

Initial jobless claims are expected to have climbed to 254,000 last week, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Claims, which count the number of people who applied for unemployment insurance for the first time in the past week, fell by 25,000 last week to 234,000.

The four-week moving average was 250,000, a decrease of 4,500 from the previous week's revised number.

Initial jobless claims are used as a real-time proxy for the pace of layoffs and the overall health of the labor market since people usually file for benefits soon after they lose their jobs.