Today’s Economic Shakers

Jobless benefits claims jump to highest levels in seven weeks...

In a departure from the recent trend, US jobless claims experienced a rise for the first time in seven weeks, catching both the market and economic analysts by surprise.

Early Thursday morning the Labor Department posted its weekly report on unemployment benefits, and the data showed that there was an increase in the number of jobless claims to 258,000, up from last week’s 243,000.

The 15,000 bump in unemployment benefits claims was sharply above analyst expectations, as evidenced by a Bloomberg survey that showed a forecast of 240,000 by its respondents.

The latest government data could reveal a reversal of the recent strong showing by the US labor market, though a single week’s numbers are hardly enough to indicate a new trend.

Other data from the Labor Department report does show continued growth in the economy, however, as there was an increase in company payrolls as well as an increase in wages.

The report also revealed that the labor market remains tight, as data showed that companies that require skilled laborers are hesitant to release more experienced workers.

Additionally, the report showed that the less volatile metric of jobless claims over a four-week period had also increased by 1,000, bringing that number up to 240,000.

The data also revealed that for the most recent week reported, continuing jobless benefits fell to 2 million, a drop of 39,000.

The jobs numbers impacted the market before the opening bell, as US equity futures indices switched from being slightly in the black to slightly in the red.

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Crude falls lower as oversupply concern continues to dominate the market…

After early morning trading drove crude prices higher, the commodity experienced a reversal as Wall Street’s opening bell neared, and oil has reversed trend and is currently in the red.

Just prior to the opening bell, May futures contracts for the US benchmark for crude, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), fell to $47.87 a barrel, a loss of 0.3%.

For WTI, the price for May settlement fell to the lowest level since last week.

Meanwhile, the global benchmark for the commodity, Brent crude, saw its own May futures contract fall by the same percentage, hitting $50.47 a barrel.

Yesterday’s report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), a statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy, showed that the buildup in domestic crude inventories that has helped drive down oil prices continues apace.

According to the EIA, US crude supplies rose by 5 million barrels, which brought the total to 533.1 million barrels. That’s a record high for stored inventory in the US.

The government report impacted Wednesday’s market directly, causing the price of Brent crude to fall below the psychologically important level of $50 per barrel for the first time this year.

Adding to the woes for crude prices was the news that Libya, the ninth leading oil producer in the world, was intending to raise its production levels after internal conflicts impacted its output.

Additionally, OPEC’s ability to clamp down on member production is coming back into question, as the world’s largest cartel may be having difficulty keeping its members from adhering to constraints on production recently put into place.

The OPEC agreement to limit production output had helped increase crude prices towards the end of 2016, but the impact now seems to becoming undone as compliance issues re-surface.