KEY POINTS:
* The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose to 445,000 from an upwardly revised reading of 410,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said.
* It was the biggest one-week jump in about six months, confounding analyst forecasts for a small drop to 405,000.
* A Labor Department official noted the rebound occurred following the holidays, which may have hindered reporting of new claims and created a backlog.
* The trade gap dipped to $38.3 billion from $38.4 billion in October, the Commerce Department reported.
* Analysts surveyed before the report had expected the November trade deficit to widen slightly to $40.5 billion from October’s originally reported $38.7 billion.
* November’s deficit was the lowest since January 2010.
* Prices at the wholesale level climbed 1.1 percent after a 0.8 percent rise in November, the Labor Department said.
* Economists had been looking for a repeat of that 0.8 percent advance in December.
* Inflation excluding food and energy, however, rose just 0.2 percent, in line with forecasts. That left the year-on-year
gain in core producer prices at 1.3 percent, just below analyst estimates.