It’s what Atrios calls “New Jobless Day,” and initial claims rose by 11K to a seasonally adjusted 531,000, but the 4-week moving average, which I consider to be a better metric, was basically flat, falling by 750 to 532,250, and continuing claims fell 98K to 5.92 million.

BTW, look at the graphs of the seasonally adjusted vs the non-seasonally adjusted numbers on the right.

I’m not sure how well the adjustments work in the current crisis, but it does smooth out the numbers somewhat, but you can clearly see some artifacts, January 2009, of the adjustments.

It’s even clearer in the bottom graph which goes back 10 years: Seasonal adjustment generally works, except when it doesn’t.

There is a potential cloud on the horizon from China, where authorities are starting to talk about reducing their economic stimulus package because of inflation concerns.

There is a possibility that a reduction in stimulus may have an oversize effect, particularly since official Chinese economic numbers are pretty Mickey Mouse.

If this is the case, it might put a further crimp in world trade.

In any case, the Conference Board’s Index of Leading Economic Indicators rose for the 6th straight month in September.

Calculated Risk: Apartment Rents “Plunge” in the West: also means that house prices have to fall to get back in line with rent to own ratios

In any case, the unemployment numbers drove oil prices down slightly, to $81.19/bbl, and the dollar strengthened slightly vs the Euro and yen.