US: Jobless claims and producer prices data awaited - Nomura

Analysts at Nomura suggest that the initial jobless claims and producer prices data will be the key economic releases for the day from the US session.

Key Quotes

“Initial jobless claims: Initial claims remain at historically low levels after a continued decline during the recovery. For the week ending 1 April, initial claims remained steady at 234k, down 25k from the week before. The four-week average of initial claims was at 250k, remaining within the 240-260k range of the past seven months. Initial claims can vary from week to week, but we expect this low trend to continue as the labor market continues to improve.”

“Producer prices: Headline PPI prices increased by 0.3% m-o-m in February. Food prices increased modestly while energy prices decelerated to a modest increase of 0.6%, following a strong surge in the prior month. Although food prices may show a continuing recovery given higher agricultural commodity prices, energy prices may be soft, as a seasonal uptick in gasoline prices has been muted. Excluding volatile components such as food, energy and trade, core PPI prices will likely increase within a steady range, offsetting some weakness in PPI energy. Note that the PPI data may affect our forecast for the CPI report.”