Initial Jobless Claims Correlation With S&P 500

The Labor Department released its weekly initial and continuing unemployment claims yesterday.  Overall, the Department’s figures paint a picture of a recovered economy, with initial seasonally adjusted claims sitting at 372K and continuing claims at 3.245 million. Over the course of the entire year, initial claims have declined by about 11K from the 2011 year end of 383K; continuing claims also exhibited the same pattern, declining by 361K from 3.606 million at the end of the prior year. For investors, the overall condition of the initial and continuing claims figures has coincided with reasonably good equity market performance.  In fact,…