Jobless claims rise to highest since 1982

The market is in a good mood this morning amid optimism about the global economy and the fact that FASB agreed to revise its mark-to-market accounting rules at its meeting today in Connecticut. Indeed, several "risk appetite" indicators are performing well (stock futures up, dollar down, and so on).

The one real fly in the ointment? The job market continues to deteriorate. Initial jobless claims jumped to 669,000 in the week of March 28 from an upwardly revised 657,000 a week earlier. That is the highest since the week of October 1, 1982 (That week was the all-time high here in the U.S. at 695,000). Continuing claims vaulted to 5.728 million from 5.567 million. This is yet another fresh all-time high (the data goes back to 1967).