Joe DePaoloApr 30th, 2026, 9:58 am

A CNBC analyst was floored by what he called a “very, very incredible” economic number during a hyped-up real-time report Thursday morning.

In a high-octane hit during CNBC’s Squawk Box, Rick Santelli read off a tranche of economic statistics right as they became public. And one metric in particular had him very excited — the latest weekly jobless claims.

“Initial jobless claims hitting the wires at 189,000!” Santelli said. “Wow! That is truly incredible! We’re looking at levels truly that we probably haven’t seen since the late ’60s! This is very, very incredible!”

Indeed, as Santelli noted, that number was the lowest on record since 1969 (via Bloomberg).

President Donald Trump’s communications team worked quickly to spread the word. The White House’s Rapid Response account on X promptly posted Santelli’s reaction.

The RNC’s official X account joined in, as well.

“Thanks to President Trump, jobless claims come in MUCH lower than expected,” their post read.

Santelli identified several other numbers as positive indicators — citing that income numbers had doubled expectations and calling the latest spending data “pretty robust.” He did note, however, that the GDP going up 2% fell short of the expected 2.3%.

Watch above, via CNBC.

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