- US stocks traded mixed Thursday after weekly jobless claims data was less dire than expected.
- Still, a record 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment over the past four weeks, wiping out all jobs created since the Great Recession.
- More banks and financial institutions reported earnings early Thursday, with mixed results.
- Read more on Business Insider.
US stocks rose slightly Thursday after weekly jobless claims data was less dire than expected. Roughly 5.2 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the week ended April 11, according to a Labor Department report.
While the number was slightly lower than the previous report, it still showed that 22 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in just four weeks. That means effectively all of the jobs created since the Great Recession have been wiped out.
“This is an awful number, but it is lower than the prior two weeks, which were above 6 million jobless claims. I do believe we have peaked,” David Bahnsen, chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group, told Business Insider.
Here’s where major US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. ET market open on Thursday:
- S&P 500: 2,789.11, up 0.2%
- Dow Jones industrial average: 23,397.77, down 0.5% (107 points)
- Nasdaq composite: 8,457.50, up 0.8%
The unemployment figures, although slightly higher than expected, are the latest economic data to show the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the US. President Donald Trump said this week that data suggest US COVID-19 cases have peaked, and that he would give guidelines to states on how to reopen economies.
"The economy is clearly in a frozen state at the moment and it's very difficult to know with certainty when the wheels of the economy will begin to move again," Hussein Sayed, chief market strategist at FXTM told Business Insider. "Such uncertainty makes analysts and strategists' jobs much tougher as many variables remain unknown and cannot be calculated in valuation models.
Investors also looked to earnings reports early Thursday. Morgan Stanley shares also slipped about 1.3% after the bank's earnings were mixed, showing a beat on trading but lower profit than anticipated. Shares of BNY Mellon gained about 1% after beating earnings estimates.
Other banks have posted large declines in first-quarter profits, including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and JPMorgan.