US Economic Reports - Thursday, 02 July 2015

Source: ADVFN Newsdesk <newsdesk@advfn.co.uk>

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With employment in the U.S. showing another notable increase in the month of June, the Labor Department released a report showing that the unemployment rate fell to a seven-year low. The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment increased by 223,000 jobs, modestly below the addition of 230,000 jobs anticipated by economists. The report also showed downward revisions to the pace of job growth in April and May, with the revised data showing increases of 187,000 jobs and 254,000 jobs, respectively.

With the revisions, Labor Department said employment gains in April and May combined were 60,000 lower than previously reported. Nonetheless, the unemployment rate still fell to 5.3 percent in June from 5.5 percent in May. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to dip to 5.4 percent. The bigger than expected decrease pulled the unemployment rate down to its lowest level since hitting 5.0 percent in April of 2008.

Around the same time, the Labor Department is due to release its jobless claims report for the week ended June 27th. The consensus estimate calls for a decline in jobless claims to 270,000 from 271,000 in the previous week. Jobless claims rose to a more than expected 281,000 in the week ended June 27th from 271,000 in the previous week. The four-week average rose to 274,750 from 273,750. Continuing claims calculated with a week's lag rose by 15,000 to 2.264 million in the week ended June 20th.

The Commerce Department is set to release its factory orders report for May at 10 am ET. Economists expect factory orders to have declined by 0.3 percent month-over-month. In April, factory declined for the eighth time in 9 months, dropping 0.4 percent compared to the previous month. Durable goods orders, which account for the bulk of factory orders, fell 1.8 percent month-over-month in May, a bigger than expected drop. Excluding transportation, orders were up 0.5 percent, in line with expectations.

Core orders, which are measured as non-defense capital goods orders, excluding aircraft, were up 0.4 percent. Shipments of this category of goods, which are directly plugged into GDP calculations, were up 0.6 percent. The Treasury Department is set to make announcements concerning next week's auctions of 3-year and 10-year notes and 30-year bonds at 11 am ET.