Initial jobless claims come in lower than expected

It's starting to become a wild ride in the claims data and most Wall Street economists still haven't caught on for some reason.
Both initial and continuing claims printed well below expectations and below even the lowest economist forecast.
However, both measures of claims were a bit above the breakeven figures I shared last week, implying a modest deterioration in the labor market or more likely due to noise given the holiday distortions.
Next week is set up to be a big upside surprise, with initial claims likely closer to 250k and continuing claims potentially rising above 2m.

Initial jobless claims declined by -24k to a seasonally adjusted 209k (cons. 227k) during the week ending Nov. 18, moving the four-week average down to 220k from 221k.
However, the 4-week average of non-seasonally adjusted initial claims moved up to -3.9% below its pre-COVID average (i.e., 2017 to 2019) from -4.3% the week before.
Continuing claims (i.e., repeat filers for unemployment insurance) declined by 22k during the week ending Nov. 11 to a seasonally adjusted 1,840k (cons. 1,875k), but the four-week average moved up to 1,837k from 1,823k.
Meanwhile, the 4-week average of non-seasonally adjusted continuing claims moved down to 6.9% above its pre-COVID average from 7.2% the week before.