After spending much of the session in drifting in the green, the markets lost confidence once trading got underway stateside, spooked by a higher than forecast jobless claims reading.
Following 15-weeks of gradually declining numbers, Thursday’s unemployment claims figure showed an unexpected rise week-on-week, from 1.307 million to 1.416 million. This reflects the return to lockdown in places like California, as politicians in the United States scramble to get a lid on the recent surge in covid-19 cases domestically.
This appears to have undermined the fragile positive sentiment that was in place before the bell. Falling half a percent, the Dow Jones found itself nearing 26850, having at one point came close to breaching 27100 for the first time in 6-weeks.
Europe, often on an American leash, saw its gains undone by this US downturn. The FTSE clung onto a 0.1% increase, while the DAX and CAC saw their growth wiped out completely, leaving them flat on the day.
It has been a bit of a weird week, with investors tryingly to find a consistent direction. Tomorrow might be slightly different, thanks to the flash manufacturing and services PMIs for July. Whether said direction will be up or down, however, is dependent on the state of the readings.
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