Unemployment claims post slight rise; productivity better than expected

Labor Market & Productivity - Initial jobless claims for the week of August 2nd reached 226,000, a 7,000 increase from the revised previous week's 219,000, marking the highest level since early July [5] - Continuing jobless claims have remained above 1.9 million for the 11th consecutive week, specifically at 1.974 million, exceeding expectations and reaching the highest level since November 2021 [6][7] - Non-farm productivity for the second quarter increased by 2.4%, surpassing the expected 2%, representing the strongest productivity since the third quarter of 2004 [3] - Unit labor costs experienced a slight increase, rising to 1.6% compared to the anticipated 1.5%, following a revised 6.9% increase in the previous period [4][5] Treasury Market - The Treasury is set to auction the final $25 billion of a $125 billion Treasury coupon supply, featuring $25 billion in 30-year bonds [8] - A record $100 billion of four-week Treasury bills are scheduled to be auctioned [8]