More U.S. data bolster worries about recession
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NEW YORK — Higher unemployment claims and weak readings from two economic indexes reinforced recession worries Thursday.
The Labor Department said applications for jobless benefits rose to 372,000, up 17,000 from the previous week.
Also, the New York-based Conference Board’s gauge of future economic activity rose 0.1% for March, reversing five months of decline. But the private business group’s indicator has shown a 3.3% annual rate of decline since March 2007.
That’s “the kind of result that whenever we’ve seen it in the past, the U.S. economy has been heading into a recession,” said Michael Gregory, senior economist for BMO Nesbitt Burns, a Toronto investment bank. “The recession signal here is clear and unequivocal.”
The Conference Board index is designed to forecast economic activity in the next three to six months based on 10 economic components, including stock prices, building permits and initial jobless claims.
The readings suggest “economic weakness is likely to continue in the near term,” said Ken Goldstein, labor economist at the Conference Board.
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