by Calculated Risk on 5/19/2011 08:30:00 AM

The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims:

In the week ending May 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 409,000, a decrease of 29,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 438,000. The 4-week moving average was 439,000, an increase of 1,250 from the previous week's revised average of 437,750.

Click on graph for larger image in graph gallery.

This graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims for the last 40 years. The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims increased this week to 439,000.

This is the highest level for the 4-week average since last November.

Note: It appears there were some temporary factors over the last few weeks that led to higher weekly unemployment claims. I expect the 4-week average to decline over the next few weeks, but it is concerning that the average is above 400,000 again.
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Schedule Update: At 10 AM ET the following will be released:

1) April Existing home sales
2) MBA Q1 Delinquency report
3) Philly Fed manufacturing survey
4) Conference Board leading indicators

I plan on posting on existing home sales. Then I'll be on the MBA conference call - and post on that data - and then I'll get back to the Philly Fed.