The surprising economic beats, even as Europe and now China slide, continues, following better than expected initial claims, which were released early as someone broke the news embargo, and trade deficit data. In the week ended August 4, 361K people filed initial jobless claims, lower than the upward revised 367K, and below expectations of 370K. This is the 5th week out of 6 in which claims have beat expectations, and heading into the September FOMC meeting, especially in the aftermath of the "blistering" August NFP report, any hope that the Fed will do anything forceful can now be taken off the table. Continuing ... (full story)