FEW FIRINGS

With the government now operating, we are getting waves of data. Weekly first-time claims for unemployment insurance are now in and the news is excellent. Initial jobless claims fell to 216,000 for the week of 11/22/25, their lowest since the week of 4/12/25. Better yet, since 10/1/25 initial claims have been tightly range-bound between 216,000-235,000. Despite massively large corporate layoff announcements, the data suggest firings remain few and far between.