Unemployment claims, Durable goods orders, Trade, Testing

Still increasing at an alarming rate:

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits eased to 1.480 million in the week ended June 20th, well above market expectations of 1.300 million, as companies continued to cut jobs more than a month after non-essential businesses resumed operations following closures in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic. The latest number was more than double its peak during the 2007-09 Great Recession, lifting the total reported since March 21st to 47.3 million.

This does not include the 728,120 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA).

New orders were a bit higher in May from April’s depressed level, but still down over 20% vs February. And note that they had been on the decline from the tariffs well before covid:


Exports down a lot more than imports as global demand continues to slow:


The President says he wasn’t kidding about slowing down testing and the data seems to confirm that as infections accelerate: