Here come initial jobless claims...
Economist forecast that claims, which count the number of people who applied for unemployment insurance for the first time in the past week, ticked up to 241,000.
Last week, claims rose by less than expected to 239,000, which marked the 102nd consecutive week the reading came in below 300,000.
The team at Bespoke Investment group previously pointed out that, as of the prior Thursday, claims have been below 240,000 for five out of the last seven weeks - significant given that claims didn't dip below 240,000 once from December 1973 to December 2016.
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.