An astonishing – as in, astonishingly bad – jobless claims figure failed to stop a continuation of the week’s rebound this Thursday.
For the week ending 21st March, 3.283 million people filed for unemployment in the USA. The week prior it was only 281k. In fact, the all-time record is just 695k, set back in October 1982. Even at the height of the financial crisis the figure peaked at 665k.
At the start of the year that jobless claims reading was unimaginable. Today it actually fell short of some analysts’ top end estimate of 4 million. Regardless, it is a truly alarming figure whichever way you slice it, yet one that failed to send the markets into another downward spiral.
If anything, after the reading was released equities actually started to pick up, erasing the morning’s losses to continue the rebound that properly began on Tuesday.
The Dow Jones led the way, adding almost 1000 points to strike 22200. This rise – once extraordinary, now commonplace – may have been prompted by a TV interview with Jerome Powell, once that saw the Federal Reserve chief claim that the central bank would ‘not run out of ammo’ as it tries to protect the US economy. Combine that with the long-awaited passing of the $2.2 trillion stimulus package, and you perhaps have the reason for the Dow’s blockbuster open.
With the US markets in high spirits, Europe was able to edge into the green. The FTSE, which had fallen under 5550, recrossed 5700 as it added 0.7%. The DAX, meanwhile, snuck its nose back above 9900 following a 0.3% increase, with the CAC hefting itself across 4450 thanks to 0.6% push.
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