US labor market health likely to remain intact

US initial jobless claims for the week ending 20 February increased to 272k, on par with consensus expectations of 270k. The earlier week's claims for the February survey week, were unrevised at 262k. The four-week moving average of claims declined to 272k, declining by 1k, while no special factors were reported by the Labor Department.

For the week ending 13 February, continuing jobless claims declined by 19k on the week to 2.253 million, on par with consensus expectations and 21k lower than the January survey week reading. Beside a similar monthly fall in survey week initial claims, the lower continuing claims suggests a recovery in payroll growth in the upcoming February employment report.

 The four-week moving average of continuing claims fell to 2.257mn, as compared with the earlier 2.262mn, while the insured jobless rate remained same at 1.7%. The US labor market is expected to remain very much healthy with the labor market separations trending back towards their lows.