U.S. consumer spending advanced 0.5 percent in February and underlying inflation slowed, government data showed on Thursday, but weekly jobless claims posted an unexpected jump.
The Commerce Department said the price index for consumer expenditure climbed 0.3 percent after rising 0.2 percent in January. Stripping out the volatile effect of food and energy prices, the core PCE index advanced only 0.2 percent in February after a 0.3 percent increase the previous month. It is up 1.6 percent over a year ago and is unchanged from January’s reading.
U.S. government bonds took heart from the weaker employment reading, which showed a 20,000 rise in new claims last week to 350,000. Analysts had expected jobless claims to decline.
