INSTANT VIEW: U.S. jobless claims fall in latest week

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for jobless insurance unexpectedly fell last week to the lowest level in more than 14 months, government data showed on Thursday, pointing to a moderation in the pace of job losses.

KEY POINTS: * Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 457,000 in the week ended November 28 from a downwardly revised 462,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said. * Claims have dropped for five consecutive weeks. * Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 480,000 from a previously reported 466,000. * The report covers the Thanksgiving holiday and a Labor Department economist said both actual and seasonally adjusted claims were down.

COMMENTS:

DAVID ADER, CRT CAPITAL GROUP, HEAD OF GOVERNMENT BOND STRATEGY, STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT:

"The figures are low, and we've seen them at these levels for awhile. The situation in the labor market is improving. It's getting less worse.

"These are still not growth levels. We'd like to see them substantially lower than this. It's certainly moving in the right direction. The pace of the deterioration is slowing."

CHRIS SULLIVAN, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, UNITED NATIONS

FEDERAL CREDIT UNION, NEW YORK:

"Overall it's a gradually improving labor market picture, though it's hard to imagine. The expectation for employment data on Friday is that we will see a continuing trend of a slower pace of layoffs, so that in and of itself is enough to pressure yields higher from depressed levels.

"Banks have been buying, asset managers that have chosen to lock in gains have parked money in Treasuries as well. I don't think that people are too interested in making strategic adjustments. I think that will wait until the beginning of next year. You do have supply on the horizon but the story has been the auctions have been well received."

PIERRE ELLIS, SENIOR ECONOMIST, DECISION ECONOMICS, NEW YORK:

"It was a holiday week, but it looks like a genuine strengthening, confirming the big decline that occurred last week. There appears to be a strong underlying trend toward shrinking layoffs."

STEVEN WOOD, CHIEF ECONOMIST, INSIGHT ECONOMICS, DANVILLE, CALIFORNIA:

"The trend over the past 6 months has clearly been lower but the level of new claims remains elevated. Continuing claims rose in the most recent week but have declined substantially over the past 4 months. However, over that same period of time, the number of people on emergency and extended unemployment benefits has risen sharply. The net change in the total number of people collecting unemployment insurance has been relatively small, suggesting the declines in continuing claims reflect the exhaustion of benefits by many claimants rather than any significant increase in hiring. The labor market is improving but remains soft albeit not nearly as weak as it was during the first half of the year."

ZACH PANDL, ECONOMIST, NOMURA SECURITIES, NEW YORK:

"Most economists were anticipating that we'd get some sort of payback this week after a decline of almost 40,000 in the previous week. That's a typical pattern in this choppy weekly data: if you have a large decline, you'll maybe get a little bit of a bounce back in the next week.

"The fact that the claims not only remained low, but decreased further is a very strong sign that labor market conditions are in fact improving and we are not seeing statistical aberrations here.

"This number obviously is going to be used by economists to anticipate change in nonfarm payrolls during the month and suggests the trend in firing activity is maybe lower than we thought. Perhaps, we'll get another deceleration in job losses in November from October. This number won't matter after 8:30 a.m. tomorrow, but it does suggest maybe a little more positive payroll report tomorrow.

"Generally this is good data for risky assets."

JAY BRYSON, GLOBAL ECONOMIST, WELLS FARGO SECURITIES, CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA:

"The jobless claims were certainly a little better than expected. Clearly the worst is over in terms of job losses. Hopefully this trend will continue, but we are not at the point where we are expecting a rise in payrolls. The number tomorrow will very likely be negative and we may get another negative number in December. We need to get to the 400,000 level or so to expect modest increases in employment, but we are moving in the right direction."

TIM GHRISKEY, CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, SOLARIS ASSET MANAGEMENT, BEDFORD HILLS, NEW YORK:

"The claims looked very good, continuing claims are basically in line with the prior period. We see some differences in terms of unit labor costs and non-farm productivity for the third quarter, but numbers not totally out of line with what might have been expected, although different than the consensus."

PETER BOOCKVAR, EQUITY STRATEGIST, MILLER TABAK, NEW YORK:

"The amount of those filing initially continues to moderate but the rest of the claims data is still showing evidence that people are still having difficulty finding new jobs. The hope of course is that the continued slowdown in firings will much sooner rather than later lead to hiring."

JAY MUELLER, SENIOR PORTFOLIO MANAGER, WELLS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN:

"On claims, now we have had two weeks in a row clearly below 500,000. That is very encouraging. In order to move from net loss of jobs into positive payrolls territory we need to get down to about 400,000 in claims. We are half way there.

"It's not surprising then that the Treasury market is selling off a bit as we begin to have more confidence that the worst of the unemployment debacle is behind us.

"I don't think we are ready for the Fed to start changing course, but we are closer.

(Today's claims report) "is not the survey week. It's more relevant to next month's payroll figure, but it will give us a predisposition to look at tomorrow's numbers somewhat optimistically."

MARKET REACTION: STOCKS: U.S. stock index futures hold gains BONDS: U.S. Treasury debt prices add to losses DOLLAR: U.S. dollar rises to session high versus yen