It has been a topsy-turvy 24 hours for financial markets. Treasury yields plunged in the wake of the soft CPI report, but retraced a little as markets digested the more hawkish-than-anticipated Fed dot plot of projections for the Fed funds target rate. We are now back firmly in a lower yields situation following more soft US numbers this morning. For starters we have a big increase in initial jobless claims of 242k versus the 225k consensus, up from 229k the previous week while continuing claims rose to 1820k (consensus 1795k and previous 1790k). These are the highest initial claims numbers since August last year and ... (full story)