EconomicCrisis.US

New claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, a government report showed on Thursday, but the underlying trend continued to point to improving labor market conditions.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 381,000, the Labor Department said. The prior week’s claims data was revised up to 366,000 from the previously reported 364,000.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 375,000. A Labor Department official said that because of a public holiday on Monday, claims from seven states – including California and Virginia – had been estimated.
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Gold fell on Tuesday but remained range-bound around $1,600 as investors stayed on the sidelines in the final week of the year, subdued by concerns about the euro zone debt crisis.

Recent U.S. economic data had spurred a rally in riskier assets including equities and industrial metals and sent gold prices up about half a percent last week.

Investors will look for more signs of recovery in the United States from data this week, including consumer confidence for December due later on Tuesday.

“Gold prices may be under pressure from a strengthening dollar in the next few months as the brightened economic prospects in the United States are likely to further boost the dollar index,” said Li Ning, an analyst at Shanghai CIFCO Futures.
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The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits hit a 3-1/2 year low last week, bolstering views the economy was gaining momentum, even though third-quarter growth was revised down.

Other data on Thursday underscored the firming tone in the economy, with consumer sentiment scaling a six-month high in December and a barometer of future activity rising for a seventh straight month in November.

While the economy is wrapping up 2011 with a spring in its step, bickering over budget policy in Washington and the debt crisis in Europe have cast a cloud over its prospects next year.
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The U.S. housing market, once the epicenter of the global financial collapse that spawned today’s European debt crisis, is on the verge of delivering some positive news.

For the first time since 2005, U.S. residential construction looks set to expand a little next year, and it could add one- or two-tenths of a percentage point to GDP growth in 2012 — a mere sliver, but one that would add to the picture of a slowly healing U.S. economy.

Every scrap of extra support would help the United States withstand the spreading damage from the crisis in the euro zone, which threatens to push a global slowdown into a deeper and more dangerous recession.
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