Just when you think jobless claims can’t go any lower, they do.  In this week’s report, first-time claims came in at a level of 209K compared to forecasts for a reading of 230K.  Not only was this week’s print a big beat relative to expectations, but it was also the lowest reading since 1969!  With jobless claims posting impressive numbers week in and week out, it’s easy to forget how impressive these weekly reports are, so let us remind you.  The current streak of 164 straight weeks of sub-300K prints is the longest such streak on record.  Also, it has now been 24 weeks since weekly claims even came in above 250K, and that’s the longest such streak of sub-250K readings since 1973.

Even with the weekly reading coming in at the lowest level since 1969, the four-week average for jobless claims didn’t quite take out its multi-decade lows from early March.  In order for this reading to make a new low next week, we’ll have to see a print of 215k or less.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, jobless claims were also impressive with a sub-200K reading.  For the current week of the year, that is the lowest level since 1969, and it’s more than 133K below the average for the current week of the year dating back to 2000.

The monthly S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices were released earlier this week, and below we provide a look at the results so you can see how real estate prices are doing in your area of the country.  (If you’re outside of the US, we’re sorry!)

In the first chart below, we show how much each of the cities tracked gained (or lost) on a month-over-month and year-over-year basis.  Keep in mind that these indices are on a two-month lag, so this month we’re looking at February results.

As shown, every city tracked posted MoM and YoY gains in February, with Seattle up the most over both time frames.  Thank you Amazon.com!

Chicago was up the least on a month-over-month basis (+0.05%), while the DC area was up the least on a year-over-year basis (+2.43%).

In the chart below, we show how much each city is up or down versus its highest point during the Housing Bubble of the mid-2000s.  This month we saw both San Diego and Los Angeles eclipse their prior all-time highs, which means exactly half of the cities tracked are now at new all-time highs, while half are still below their bubble highs.

Denver and Dallas are by far up the most from their mid-2000s highs, while Las Vegas, Phoenix, Miami, and Chicago are the farthest below their prior highs.

Our next chart shows how much home prices have gained off of their low points following the bursting of the Housing Bubble.  Most of these lows weren’t made until 2011/2012, which was 2-3 years after the low for the stock market in March 2009.  As shown, the three composite indices are now up around 50% off of their lows.  San Francisco home prices are up the most at +118%, followed by Las Vegas (+93%), Seattle (+85%), and Detroit (+84%).

On the weak side, Cleveland and New York have seen home prices bounce the least off of their housing crash lows at just +25%.  Other cities that have posted relatively weak home price gains over the last few years include the DC area and Chicago.

Below we provide raw price charts for the S&P/Case Shiller home price indices going back as far as their data goes.  Cities that are highlighted in green have eclipsed their prior Housing Bubble highs, while those not highlighted in green are still below their prior highs.  As mentioned earlier, Los Angeles and San Diego are the two cities that just made new highs this month.

We’ve also made charts that highlight the year-over-year percentage change in the S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices.  These are included below.  When looking through the charts, you’ll mostly notice a big spike in YoY gains during the Housing Bubble, then a crash to extremely negative levels during the bust, and then a two-stage recovery since then.  The last period of rapid YoY home price growth for most cities came to an end in 2013/2014, and since then, we’ve seen slow and steady gains.  No city has seen a year-over-year decline in home prices for a number of years now.

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The average stock that has reported earnings this season (since 4/10) has fallen in price on its earnings reaction day (the first trading day following a stock’s earnings report).

Below is a list of the stocks that have posted the biggest one-day gains in reaction to their earnings reports.  For stocks that report after the close, we use the next day’s price change.  For stocks that report before the open, we use that day’s price change.

As shown, Limelight Networks (LLNW) has seen the best response of any stock on earnings this season with a one-day gain of 21.71%.  Just two other stocks have seen gains of more than 15% on their earnings reaction days — Ericsson (ERIC) and Santander (SC).

Six other stocks have posted gains of more than 10% — SANM, STNG, HLX, USNA, LRN, and TRU.  Other notables on the list of biggest earnings season winners include Netflix (NFLX), Six Flags (SIX), Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), American Express (AXP), and CSX.

While 9 stocks have gained more than 10% on their earnings reaction days so far this quarter, 13 have fallen more than 10%.  The three worst performers in reaction to earnings have been Skechers (SKX), trivago (TRVG), and Pier 1 Imports (PIR).  All three of these stocks fell more than 20% in response to earnings.  Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) just missed falling 20% with a one-day decline of 19.95%.

Other notables on the list of biggest earnings season losers include Philip Morris International (PM), Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), IBM, 3M (MMM), and United Rentals (URI).

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One of the problems with the market we have been highlighting over the last several weeks has been the equity market’s inability to hang on to early gains.  Whether or not stocks trade higher at the open, the trend throughout the trading day has been lower.  In the Treasury market, we have seen a similar trend as investors take any opportunity they can get to dump long-term paper.  Since the direction of treasury prices has the opposite impact on yields, this has resulted in some strong upward momentum for treasury yields.

Take the last week or so, for example.  If today’s increase in yields holds, the yield on the 10-year US Treasury will have finished the day higher than it opened for six straight days.  This helped to push the yield above the ‘dreaded’ 3% threshold.  Similar runs of strong intraday increases in the 10-year yield have been relatively uncommon over the last twenty years with the current streak being the 19th such streak of six or more days.  The longest streak of consecutive open to close increases in the 10-year yield lasted nine trading days in the period ending in June 2006, and the most recent streak of six or more days was exactly two years ago today!