U.S. jobless claims decline for consecutive week

WASHINGTON – The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits declined for the third straight week.

Jobless claims fell by 16,000 to 223,000 last week, from 239,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The four-week average for claims, which compensates for weekly volatility, declined by 2,000 to 253,250 after rising for five straight weeks as the omicron variant of the coronavirus spread, disrupting business in many parts of the U.S.

Last week, the Labor Department reported a surprising burst of hiring in January, with employers adding 467,000 jobs.

It also revised upward its estimate for job gains in November and December by a combined 709,000.

The unemployment rate edged up to a still-low 4% from 3.9%, as more people began looking for work, but not all of them are securing jobs right away.

In total, 1.6 million Americans were collecting jobless aid the week that ended Jan. 29, essentially flat from the previous week.

Even as omicron variant spread quickly earlier this winter, employers have been eager to hire, a sign of a resilient economy.

That winter spike in infections briefly tripped up the country’s strong recovery from 2020’s virus-caused recession, but employers appear confident in long-term growth.

Massive government spending and the vaccine rollout jump-started the economy as employers added a record 6.4 million jobs last year.

The U.S. economy expanded 5.7% in 2021, growing last year at the fastest annual pace since a 7.2% surge in 1984, also coming after a recession.

Coca-Cola posts big sales for fourth quarter 2021

Coca-Cola and posted better-than-expected sales in the fourth quarter as the omicron variant barely registered and venues like coffee shops and movie theaters continued to reopen. Revenue rose 10% to $9.5 billion in the October-December period.

That beat Wall Street’s forecast of $8.98 billion, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

The World Heath Organization named omicron as a variant of concern in late November, triggering lockdowns in some parts of the world.

Chairman and CEO James Quincey said there was some impact in December and January, but the disruption was not as great as previous waves of the virus.

Quincey said a restructuring announced in late 2020, which reduced the company’s business segments and cut 200 slow-selling drinks like Tab and Odwalla juices, left Coke more nimble and better able to redirect marketing and other resources.

“It was pruning the garden to let the better flowers grow,” Quincey said.

For the first time since the pandemic began, the volume of Coke products being sold for use outside of the home in the fourth quarter exceeded the levels recorded in 2019, the company said.

Quincey said Coke is expecting consumer mobility to continue to improve this year.

Coke said it expects to deliver adjusted revenue growth of 7% to 8% this year, ahead of its typical forecast of 4% to 5%.

Quincey said that’s partly due to markets reopening around the world, but also because of planned price increases to offset rising costs for commodities like sugar and aluminum cans as well as transportation.

Still, Quincey said Coke will tread carefully with price increases.

From wire reports “While it’s easy to respond to inflation by putting up the prices, there is clearly – as there is broad-based inflation – going to be a squeeze on real incomes in a number of countries,” Quincey said Thursday during a conference call with investors. “We do not want to lose customers.”

Coke said its coffee sales volumes grew 17% in the October-December period as its Costa coffee shops reopened in the United Kingdom.

Sports drinks rose 18% thanks to strong growth for Bodyarmor.

Coke, which has had a 15% share in Bodyarmor since 2018, bought full control of the brand for $5.6 billion in November.

Net income jumped 66% to $2.4 billion. Earnings, adjusted for one-time items, fell 5% to 45 cents per share.

That was better than the 41-cent earnings Wall Street forecast, according to FactSet.

That was better than Wall Street expected. Industry analysts had projected earnings of 41 cents per share on revenue of $8.98 billion, according to FactSet.

Coke shares rose nearly 2% in morning trading.