00:00The low-fire economy continues. We're at 213,000 for initial jobless claims last week.
00:05That's down from a revised 214,000 the week before, and it's just about where we expected
00:11to be, so it doesn't suggest that companies are giving up on their employees yet. Continuing
00:17claims, 1,850,000. That's down from 1,871 the week before. Other numbers out. A smaller than
00:24expected trade deficit for the month of January, negative $54.5 billion. That's down from negative
00:3172.9 in the month of December. Imports were down by seven-tenths of a percent. Exports up by five
00:40and a half percent, suggesting there is some tariff effect at work there. Housing starts are out,
00:46and they are up 7.2 percent in the month of January. A big surprise. The anticipation was for a
00:52decline
00:53of four and a half percent. Bad weather, of course, one of the major culprits. Building permits were
00:59down 5.4 percent. The expectation was for negative 3.1 percent, so more pessimism on the side of
01:08builders, but not as much of a weather impact as people thought. So some overall really pretty
01:17good news for the economy given where we are at the moment.
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