US: Stocks sink after massive jump in jobless claims

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks slipped lower in volatile trading early Thursday, absorbing another eye-popping unemployment figure due to the government-ordered shutdown of businesses to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 20,776.92, down 0.8 per cent in choppy trading.

The broad-based S&P 500 dropped 0.4 per cent to 2,461.23, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index declined 0.5 per cent to 7,322.76.

Another 6.65 million US workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, the most ever recorded, the Labour Department reported Thursday.

The result far surpassed even the highest of estimates by economists, and reflected the growing damage to the US economy as the pandemic worsens and the growing death toll prompts more states to impose lockdowns.

In the same week of last year, only 211,000 people requested benefits for the first time.

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After stocks rallied last week, some analysts posited that the market was adapting to the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus impact to come and may have already bottomed out.

But stocks fell sharply on Wednesday and Thursday's stunning surge in jobless claims put pressure on a rebound that had been implied in futures markets prior to the data release.

AFP