00:00Very interesting morning, John, with lots of data. As you mentioned, jobless claims come in a big drop, 206,000
00:06for last week. That's down from the initially reported 227. Continuing claims are at 1,869, slightly up from 1
00:16,862 in the initially reported last week's figures.
00:21We also have trade numbers in the trade deficit for the month of December, 70.3 billion, significantly higher than
00:31the 53.0 billion reported for the month of November. Add into that wholesale inventories up two-tenths and retail
00:40inventories flat on the month. Those are not particularly great numbers.
00:44And this matters because these are the last three data points that will go into fourth quarter GDP that we
00:49will get tomorrow. And that trade deficit is going to whack away at some of the strength we have been
00:56seeing in that Atlanta Fed GDP now number.
00:59The other thing that we want to look at is the Philadelphia Fed. The Philadelphia Fed business index comes in
01:06at 16.3, up from 12.6. The new orders index is at 11.7 versus 14.4. So that's
01:17down a little bit.
01:17And prices paid 38.6 from 46.9. So a little bit better business in the Philadelphia area. But inflation
01:28drops. And that will be seen as good news by those on the Fed who yesterday were talking about rate
01:33cuts as opposed to rate increases.
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