U.S. First-Time Uneployment Benefit Claims Edge Up

The Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits edged modestly higher in the week ended April 19th.

The report said initial jobless claims crept up to 222,000, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 216,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to rise to 221,000 from the 215,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the less volatile four-week moving average edged down to 220,250, a decrease of 750 from the previous week’s revised average of 221,000

A separate report released by the Commerce Department on Thursday showed new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods surged much more than expected in the month of March amid a spike by orders for transportation equipment.

The Commerce Department said durable goods orders shot up by 9.2 percent in March after climbing by a downwardly revised 0.9 percent in February.

Economists had expected durable goods orders to jump by 2.0 percent compared to the 1.0 percent increase that had been reported for the previous month.

Excluding the sharp increase by orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders were virtually unchanged in March after rising by 0.7 percent in February. Ex-transportation orders were expected to rise by 0.2 percent.

At 10 am ET, the National Association of Realtors is scheduled to release its report on existing home sales in the month of March.

Economists expect existing home sales to tumble by 3.1 percent to an annual rate of 4.13 million in March after surging by 4.2 percent to an annual rate of 4.26 million in February.

The Treasury Department is due to announce the results of this month’s auction of $44 billion worth of seven-year notes at 1 pm ET.

At 5 pm ET, Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari is scheduled to participate in a moderated question-and-answer session before a University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering event.