The major equity indices are rocking again today, almost completely negating the market pullback from recent weeks. Global markets rallied today as well by over 2.0% primarily thanks to the Fed’s comments yesterday. In addition, Russian President Vladimir Putin finally addressed the collapse of the Russian economy, saying that under the most negative circumstances, this weakness in the ruble and the economy will last a maximum of two years. Most assuredly, “growth is inevitable” was the phrase that sent the ruble higher and calmed some market nerves for now. Domestically, the Fed’s comments weren’t the only factors causing the equity indices to soar.

Firstly, the weekly jobless claims came in far better than expected, which leads many to believe that December’s employment data may round out the year on a high note. After the pop above 300,000 in late November, the initial jobless claims have been coming back down and are now near their recovery lows. For the third straight week, initial claims came down, this time by 6,000 to 289,000 in the week ended December 13. The 4-week average, at 298,750, is down fractionally for the first decrease since the beginning of November. The December 13 week is also the sample week for the December jobs report, and when compared to November’s sample the results are rather mixed. Lagging by a week, continuing claims were also mixed at 2.373 million in the week of December 6^th, which was down by a substantial 147,000 and almost the reverse of the prior week’s 148,000 surge. The 4-week average is up by 10,000 at 2.397 million, with the 4-week average trending roughly 30,000 above the month-ago comparison. There is good news in the unemployment for insured workers, which is down to its recovery low at 1.8%. No special factors influencing the weekly jobless data is a great positive indication of what may be reported in the December employment situation.

Although not nearly as strong as November’s reading, the Philadelphia manufacturing region still showed some very strong growth. The Philly Fed’s general business conditions index slowed to 24.5 from 40.8 in November, which is still one of the highest readings since 2011. However, details of the report show that there was slowing across the board, especially for new orders which came in at 15.7 in December compared to the 35.7 reading in November. Employment came in at 7.2 versus 22.4 in the month before and shipments came in at 16.1 compared to the 31.9 reading in November. It was this 31.9 reading that first signaled that November was supposed to be a great month for manufacturers, which was confirmed in Monday’s industrial production report where the manufacturing component jumped by 1.1%. This report offers similar indications to the seemingly contradictory reading in the Empire State report as well as the flash PMI manufacturing report from Tuesday. It doesn’t look like December will remotely come close to posting the same kind of strength as November, but we note that the rate of growth is still relatively strong.

Lastly, the index of leading economic indicators continues show strong near-term growth rates, at 0.6% for November versus the downwardly revised 0.6% in October and the 0.8% in both September and August. On the positive side, yield spreads (reflecting the Fed’s near-zero rate policy), manufacturing orders and credit indications are all strong. Negative factors include November’s decline in building permits and initial unemployment claims, which were briefly over 300,000 in November. All in all this is a very health report and coincides with arguments from the Fed’s hawks who warn that the economy is headed up and so should interest rates.

Note: We are holding off on an afternoon Hotline idea.