It’s jobless Thursday, and initial claims fell slightly to a still awful 472,000, in the middle of the 450-485k range it has been been in, with one exception, for the past 6 months, while the less volatile 4-week moving average fell to 485,500 last week from 488,000, and continuing claims fell to 4.46 million, and the people on emergency UI fell as well.

It’s a lot of press about improvement, but this is not even treading water, this is a number in which payrolls continue to fall.

Pending home sales rose slightly in July, and beat estimates, but the market is still pretty much dead.