-Thomas Costerg, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to nine-week low, according to the US Labor Department. Initial jobless claims declined by 20,000 to 268,000 in the week ended March 28, overshooting economists' forecasts for 286,000. Continuing unemployment claims for the week ended March 14 also dropped to 2.325 million from 2.413 million reported in the preceding week. Earlier in the week however, the ADP jobs report showed 189,000 private sector jobs were added to the labour market in March, coming in shy of expectations and falling below the 200,000 threshold for the first time in ten months. A more comprehensive report on the labour market health, the US non-farm payrolls, will be released today. Analysts predict the report will show 245,000 new workers have been added to the US payrolls in March, down from 295,000 seen in the previous month. Meanwhile, the US trade deficit shrank in February to the lowest level in more than five years. Exports continued to struggle with a strong US Dollar and sluggish overseas demand, while labour disputes at ports along the US West Coast undermined trade activity. The trade gap narrowed to $35.4 billion, the smallest since October 2009, the Commerce Department said. Imports contracted 4.4%, the biggest fall since February 2009, when the economy was still in the recession. Exports declined 1.6% to $186.2 billion, the lowest level since October 2012.
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