Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of markets brought to you by Reuters reporters. You can share your thoughts with us at markets.research@thomsonreuters.com JOBLESS CLAIMS WITH SEASONAL DECORATIONS (1052 EST/1552 GMT) With the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits dropping to its lowest level in more than 52 years last week, JPMorgan and Jefferies took a look. With labor market conditions continuing to tighten amid an acute shortage of workers, initial claims for state unemployment benefits tumbled 43,000 to a seasonally adjusted 184,000 for the week ended Dec. 4, according to the Labor Department. In comparison economists polled by Reuters had forecast 215,000 applications for the latest week. read more "We think that filings are continuing to trend down over time as the labor market keeps recovering. But we also think that recent low levels of filings in the seasonally adjusted data may be being exaggerated by the seasonal factors," wrote JPMorgan economist Daniel Silver. Also he wrote that "the tight labor market may be limiting the amount of seasonal layoffs that take place around this time of year relative to norms." However, before seasonal adjustment he noted that initial claims jumped 64,000 during the week ended December 4. Silver reminds readers that the filings can be noisy from week to week, pointing to the week ended Nov. 27 when seasonally adjusted filings increased 38,000 to 1.992mn. Also Jefferies money market economist Thomas Simons threw a little caution on the data saying: "The labor market is very strong, but not quite this strong." Simons suggests the picture look better than it should due to a Department of Labor methodology change for calculating seasonal adjustment last summer to help it deal better with larger numbers when claims were still in the millions. So he writes, "the risk of even more extreme prints remains high throughout the next month and a half," and suggests that the Labor department will "need to address this seasonal adjustment issue soon" and that two prints in the last 3 weeks with 1960s levels maybe motivate them to change their ways. (Sinéad Carew) ***** U.S. STOCKS MODESTLY RED IN EARLY TRADE (1003 EST/1503 GMT) Wall Street"s main indexes are modestly red in early trade on Thursday after logging three straight days of gains. With the U.S. 10-Year Treasury yield coming back under the 1.50% level, small caps (.RUT) are among weaker indexes. That said, with communication services (.SPLRCL) and tech (.SPLRCT) roughly flat, the NYSE FANG+TM index (.NYFANG) is posting a rise, and outperforming. In any event, the S&P 500 (.SPX) is only around 0.3% shy of its November 18 record close of 4,704.54. All eyes are now on consumer prices index data due on Friday. A hotter-than-expected reading could strengthen the case for aggressive policy tightening ahead of the U.S. central bank"s meeting next week. Here is where markets stand in early trade: NASDAQ 100: BACK ON TRACK? (0900 EST/1400 GMT) The Nasdaq 100 (.NDX) has roared back this week. In fact, this index of the one hundred largest non-financial companies on the Nasdaq is on track for its best week since early February. This strength is coming just one week after the NDX suffered a one-week slide of as much as 7.3%, and once again flirted with its rising 20-week moving average (WMA): Since being reclaimed in mid-April 2020, the 20-WMA has been proving to be a resilient support for the NDX. Over this period, and despite a number of intraweek violations, the NDX has only ended below it once, in the week ending October 30, 2020. The index finished just 0.1% below this longer-term moving average that week before then immediately vaulting higher the following week. As a result, the moving average"s one-week rate-of-change did not turn negative at that time. In fact, the 20-WMA has now not ticked down for 87-straight weeks, which is its longest such run since a 126-week streak from May 2016 to October 2018. In any event, since mid-April 2020, all tests of the 20-WMA have ultimately led to higher peaks and troughs, as the NDX has steadily made new highs. It now remains to be seen if this most recent flirtation with the 20-WMA will lead to new highs, but the NDX ended Wednesday only a little over 1% from its November 19 record close, and only about 3% from its November 22 record intraday peak. CME e-mini Nasdaq 100 futures are down modestly ahead of Thursday"s open. A more decisive closing break of the 20-WMA than was seen in late-October 2020, with the moving average then ticking down, could signal a sea change in trend. read more (Terence Gabriel) ***** FOR THURSDAY"S LIVE MARKETS" POSTS PRIOR TO 0900 EST/1400 GMT - CLICK HERE: read more Terence Gabriel is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.