Jobless claims up

New orders for US manufactured goods rose in December and a gauge of future business investment rebounded, showing the US economy ended the year with more momentum than previously thought. Other reports on Thursday showed new claims for jobless benefits rose only moderately last week, suggesting the labour market was still healing, while new US single-family home sales unexpectedly fell in December.
US durable goods data underlines economic momentum
Commerce Department data showed orders for durable goods climbed 3.0 percent last month. That was likely boosted by a surge in orders at aircraft builders like Boeing. Economists had forecast orders rising 2.0 percent. Durable goods range from toasters to big-ticket items like aircraft which are meant to last three years and more.
The report also showed US companies could be growing more willing to invest the $2 trillion pile of cash they amassed in recent years. The US Federal Reserve warned on Wednesday that business investment had cooled. Non-defence capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, climbed a higher-than-expected 2.9 percent. It had declined the previous two months.
"What it does tell you about going into the new year is that there's some momentum here," said Jacob Oubina, an economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York. Also, shipments of non-defence capital goods orders excluding aircraft, which go into the calculation of gross domestic product, rose 2.9 percent after declining 1.0 percent in November.
The overall increase in orders was buoyed by an 18.9 percent surge in orders for civilian aircraft. Boeing received 287 orders for aircraft during the month, according to the plane maker's website, up from 96 in November. In a separate report, a gauge of future US economic activity rose to a five-month high in December as labour market conditions improved, the private US Conference Board said.
Labour Department data showed new US claims for unemployment benefits rising last week but the underlying trend continued to point to improving labour market conditions.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 21,000 to a seasonally adjusted 377,000, the Labour Department said. The four-week moving average for initial claims, seen as a measure of labour market trends, fell 2,500 to 377,500.
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the US central bank could do more to help growth if the economy falters, after policymakers said interest rates would remain near zero until late 2014. Among the darker clouds looming over the US economy is a sovereign debt crisis in Europe that is widely seen triggering a recession in the euro zone.
Greece resumes tortuous negotiations on a debt swap with private creditors in Athens on Thursday, with the European Central Bank thrown into the mix after IMF chief Christine Lagarde said public sector holders of Greek debt may need to take losses too.
Increased consumer spending and efforts by companies to restock their shelves likely led the US economy to accelerate at the end of 2011 although many economists expect some of that strength to wane early this year. A report due Friday is expected to show the economy grew at a 3.0 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, up from 1.8 percent in the previous period.
The Commerce Department also released a report showing new US single-family home sales unexpectedly fell in December for the first time in four months and the median home price dropped, dampening some of the hopes the housing sector will boost the economy this year.