From Reuters:

The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, further evidence of a weak labor market just hours before President Barack Obama unveils a plan on job creation in a major address to Congress…

…Applications for unemployment benefits rose to 414,000 in the week ending September 3 from an upwardly revised 412,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Wall Street analysts had been looking for a dip to 405,000…

Why would analysts be look for a dip?  Over at FinViz, they report the expected number not a 405,000, but 400,000…and here it goes, again, with an “unexpectedly” higher number.  Are the analysts working on the “magic” theory in which an increasingly bankrupt nation will create jobs “just because”?  Are they just guessing?

That is what I figure – after all, how can you really analyze such a thing?  Not like you can call all the businesses in America on Monday and ask them how many they will lay off on Friday.  What this shows is that a great deal of the data we’re using to make decisions on is bogus…meaningless numbers put out by people who (a) think they have to put them out and (b) figure that any number is better than no number.

Better to just wait for the number – and until it drops below 250,000 a week, we’re not getting anywhere.