historic jobs boom and the numbers also really suggest that despite covid and high inflation, the economy is ending the year in pretty good shape. as you mentioned, jobless claims dipping, they re holding near this 52-year low that was set earlier this month. simply put, workers are in high demand and companies are not letting go of the workers that they have, and as you mentioned, if four-week moving average, which smooths out some of the volatility that we see week to week, that is actually down to the lowest level since october of 1969 when back when richard nixon was in the white house. this is a slam dunk positive for the economy and another positive right now is what we re seeing in the stock market. they typically call the last few days of the year the santa claus rally because markets tend to do pretty well, and we re seeing that play out again, you know, all three major markets that are up double-digit percentages on
right now, and yet, i want to pull up another chart on consumer confidence which has been steadily dropping to some degree, maybe ebbing up and down a little bit but it s lower than it was just five or six months ago despite that data. explain to me the dissonance between every major indicator seeming to be positive except for maybe one or two and the u.s. consumer view right now. well, phil, i do think the jobs market is a slam dunk positive right now. 198,000, the jobless claims in the latest week. that s holding near 52 near low, the last time we saw something like this. richard nixon was in the white house, but there is this disconnect because normally when you see jobs numbers like think would expect consumer confidence would be higher and you also wouldn t expect the nearly two-thirds of americans in the latest cnn poll to say the economy is in poor shape, and i think there s two big factors here and they are related. covid and inflation. on the covid front, it makes sense.
it s amazing. clearly the jobs market is doing just amazing right now. in the balance of power between labor and bosses, workers have all the bargains power. companies, they can t fill all the job openings so they can t let go of the workers they have. we ve seen jobless claims fall to lowest level, 1969, when richard nixon was in the white house. a youth positive. the recent decline may be exaggerated a bit by seasonal effects. noisy this time of year and covid has messed with the government s models. still, big picture, even look at the four-week moving average take ago way volatility lowest level since march 2020. a slam dunk positive for the economy. thing two. gas prices dipping a bit. solving some problems with the supply chain. what s the impact on inflation? we know that supply chain and energy are really two of the