Thursday saw another horrendous piece of jobs data out of the US, and another triple-digit surge from the Dow Jones.
For the week ending May 1st, another 3.169 million Americans filed for unemployment, pushing the figure for the last month and a half towards 34 million. That figure follows yesterday’s -20.236 million ADP (NASDAQ:ADP) nonfarm reading, and ahead of tomorrow’s potentially -21.4 million headline nonfarm number, in a jobs report that could also see the unemployment rate shot up from 4.4% to 16%.
And yet, as has been the case for a while, investors weren’t all that bothered by these job losses. Instead, focusing on Donald Trump’s strategy to reopen America for business, deaths be damned, the Dow Jones added 300 points, once again putting a 24000-crossing close in the conversation.
This follows on from a solid day for Europe, one that saw the FTSE ignore its own dire data – in the form of the Bank of England’s economic forecasts – to rise 75 points, lifting the UK index to a one-week peak of 5930. The FTSE benefited from sterling’s downturn; the currency gave up its initial gains as the session went on, tumbling half a percent against the dollar and 0.4% against the euro, perhaps bearing the brunt of the Bank of England’s announcement.
As for the Eurozone indices, a 0.8% increase for the DAX kept it above 10700, while the CAC sat at 4470 thanks to a 50 point rise.
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