Instant View: Jobless claims fall in latest week

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, government data showed on Thursday, but were still too high to signal a change in fortunes for the troubled labor market.

KEY POINTS: * Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped for a second straight week, slipping 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 472,000 in the week ended August 28, the Labor Department said. * Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast claims edging up to 475,000 from the previously reported 473,000 the prior week, which was revised up to 478,000 in Thursday's report.

COMMENTS:

DOUG ROBERTS, CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, CHANNELCAPITALRESEARCH.COM, SHREWSBURY, NEW JERSEY:

"It's a little bit better than expected but nothing significant. There's an incredible degree of pessimism; you're in a situation right now where unless it's significantly better or worse, a lot of it is built into the (stock) market.

"Futures moved a little bit, but because of the degree of pessimism, nobody's willing to make a huge bet one way or the other.

"The numbers were pretty much on target. Initial claims are a little bit less significant this week because it's only the second part of a triple play. You had the ADP report yesterday, and the big one is really the employment report tomorrow."

PETER JANKOVSKIS, CO-CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, OAKBROOK INVESTMENTS LLC, LISLE, ILLINOIS:

"Not too much there, basically with the revision to the prior week, I would say in line with expectations. Considering the volatility that they've had the last couple of months, it's nice to see consistent numbers. But a lot of that, we are talking about seasonal adjustments, the census stuff, so it kind of makes sense that things have leveled out.

"I would expect that we are going to have a pretty quiet day today. I would say if we are able to hold even through the day and hold on to (Wednesday's) gains that is a good sign actually, that we don't have some profit taking set in."

MARK LUSCHINI, CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST, JANNEY MONTGOMERY SCOTT, PHILADELPHIA:

"Directionally it is encouraging that we came down from the 500,000 plus reading. We're still uncomfortably high, given where we are at this juncture of the recovery, but that we're moving toward 400,000 rather than 500,000 is indicative of at least some measure of job creation.

"These numbers tend to jump around, so it doesn't mean much for tomorrow. Given how much is going on, on so many levels of the economy, it'd be tough to have one datapoint predict another."

MARKET REACTION: STOCKS: U.S. stock index futures edge higher after fall in weekly jobless claims. BONDS: U.S. Treasury debt prices extend losses. DOLLAR: U.S. dollar little changed.