Next Week in Business: jobless claims, mortgage rates and Wall Street’s first trading day of 2025

A look at some of the key business events and economic indicators upcoming next week.

LAYOFFS UPDATE

The Labor Department issues its weekly tally of new unemployment benefit claims on Thursday.

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits held steady two weeks ago to a seasonally adjusted 219,000. Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs.

Initial jobless benefit claims, weekly, seasonally adjusted:

Nov. 15: 215,000

Nov. 22: 215,000

Nov. 29: 225,000

Dec. 6: 242,000

Dec. 13: 220,000

Dec. 20: 219,000

Source: FactSet

KICKING OFF 2025

Also Thursday, U.S. financial markets re-open for the first trading day of 2025.

U.S. stocks could be hard pressed to duplicate 2024’s gains, especially the S&P 500, which was pushed to 57 all-time highs by a growing economy and a trio of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts. Big Tech, bitcoin and gold also look like big winners.

MORTGAGE RATES

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac on Thursday delivers its weekly snapshot of average U.S. home loan rates.

Last week, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose to 6.85%. Elevated mortgage rates and rising home prices have sidelined many would-be homebuyers and put home sales on track for their worst year since 1995.

Average rate on the benchmark 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage, weekly:

Nov. 21: 6.84

Nov. 27: 6.81

Dec. 5: 6.69

Dec. 12: 6.60

Dec. 19: 6.72

Dec. 26: 6.85

Source: Freddie Mac