Wall Street operates flat despite alarming numbers of jobless claims in the US | Economy

Wall Street operates this Thursday with minimal earnings despite the fact that the Labor Department announced that 6.64 million workers submitted applications for unemployment aid last week in the United States, its all-time high for the second consecutive week. Despite the bad data, the New York Stock Exchange, which started with moderate losses, posted gains a few minutes from the open: the Dow Jones gained 0.4%, the S&P 0.7% and the Nasdaq technology companies. 0.6%.

The blow to the economic halt by the coronavirus is hitting unemployment in a way unprecedented in the history of the world’s first potential. Before the pandemic, the all-time record for jobless claims was 695,000 in October 1982. Last week the Labor Department reported that 3.3 million workers had asked for help, four times the latest mark. This Thursday the data has doubled to the latest and accumulates almost 10 million Americans in two weeks.

Wall Street sealed its worst quarter since 2008 when the Great Recession broke out on Tuesday: the S&P 500 fell 20%, its biggest quarterly decline in 12 years, and the Dow Jones 23%, the worst figure since 1987. And the trend It continues to drop – something that could be broken in this session – while analysts predict that the ups and downs will not ease in the short term. Goldman Sachs, one of the world’s largest investment banks, predicts that unemployment in the United States will reach 15%. The latest official figures published are from February, when it was at 3.6%, a range known as full employment.

Oil prices soared 30% to $ 26.98 a barrel after US President Donald Trump announced on Twitter a possible truce between Saudi Arabia and Russia in his price war and following a report on plans to China to buy crude for its strategic reserves. The president said that both countries could cut 10-15 million barrels in production to cut prices. “If that happens it would be GREAT news for the oil and gas industry,” wrote the Republican.

The pandemic contagion and death curve continues to rise. The United States already registers 216,722 case cases and more than 5,100 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Experts estimate that the world’s leading economy will see the peak of the curve in two weeks. Trump has said that they calculate that the country will return to normal in the first days of June, but the outlook is uncertain. Over the weekend the White House extended the restraining measures until April 30, and about 96% of Americans live in territories whose governors recommend staying home.

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