Initial Jobless Claims Vs. S&P

This page is created to monitor the Initial Jobless Claims Vs. Standard & Poor's Index (S&P).

Whenever you get higher initial jobless claims (blue chart goes down), the S&P follows suit (red chart goes down).

Initial claims are a leading indicator for the unemployment rate.

Historically, when initial claims go above 430K, economic conditions soften.

Correlation: Initial Unemployment Claims Vs. S&P

Another way to value the stock market is to look at the initial unemployment claims. You take the inverted chart of this metric and you will see that this is highly correlated with the S&P index.

Chart 1: Initial Unemployment Claims (Inverted) Vs S&P Index

So whenever you hear that the initial unemployment claims went up, you sell the S&P index.

Oh, and what do you know, weekly initial unemployment claims just went up:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-weekly-jobless-claims-edge-up-to-352000-2013-04-18?link=MW_latest_news