‘Companies hiring plans seem frozen like a deer in the headlights’

Initial jobless claims climbed more than expected.

Claims, which count the number of people who applied for unemployment insurance for the first time in the past week, rose by 10,000 to 244,000 from the prior unrevised reading of 234,000.

Economists forecast claims would rise to 240,000.

“Companies hiring plans seem Frozen like a deer in the Headlights. That’s the message of today’s slightly elevated level of unemployment claims,” Chris Rupkey, an economist at MUFG Union Bank, wrote in an email after the data crossed. “The fact that claims are not falling further is the first hint that companies are growing more cautious and that Washington has once again become a source of uncertainty that takes a toll on growth.”

“Instead of tax reform most of the headlines from the Trump administration are bomb droppers that heighten global risks. North Korea, Syria, Iran, whatever happened to the economy? Talk of radical moves on long standing corporate tax policies from cross-border taxes on over $2 trillion of imported goods and eliminating the deduction of interest costs seems to have frozen the plans of many companies to expand or produce,” he added.

The four-week moving average clocked in at 243,000, a decrease of 4,250 from the previous week's unrevised average of 247,250