According to the government, the number of applications for grant payments fell to a minimum for the first time in the last quarter, thanks to the success of health measures to limit the spread of Covid-19.
Unfortunately, it is too early to talk about the final victory. After all, more than 20 million Americans remain unemployed.
However, Rubella Farooqi, chief U.S. Economist at High Frequency Economics in White Plains, assured that "the U.S. economy as well as the labor market is ready to enter a new recovery phase. This is facilitated by an increase in the number of vaccinated people and a decrease in the level of the disease."
Initial applications decreased to the level of 712 thousand, which is 13 thousand less than the predicted ones. Unadjusted requests also declined, thanks in part of the seasonal warming in all states except Ohio, which is experiencing a fraud scandal.
A total of 1.2 million people applied last week.
After such news, US stocks opened the trading day higher.
Shares of Apple Inc., Facebook Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Tesla added between 2.2% and 3.6%, recouping their recent declines. This allowed the S&P 500 to reach 3,950.43.
Blue-chip stocks on the Dow have been showing their highest peaks since the beginning of the week, and the Nasdaq has now lost about 5% of its record at the close of the session after the rise of meme stocks the day before.
Mike Loewengart, Managing director of investment strategy at E*TRADE Financial, said that "the decline in the number of applications for unemployment benefits is another step towards victory this week and a sign that we are moving in the right direction."
The weak performance of the 7-year auction of government bonds last week alerted investors, and they preferred injections into the treasury obligations of Britain, which demonstrated success in the fight against coronavirus. Today, the situation has changed.
On the eve of the auction for the placement of long-term bonds, the projected yield did not exceed 1.6%. Eric Merlis, head of global markets at Citizens, commented: "It seems that the markets are already used to higher returns, and yet we will wait for the market to survive the 30-year auction."
We remind you that on Wednesday, the Dow index recorded a high for the first time in two weeks, thanks to the announcement of the approval of the House of Representatives for the package of anti-crisis measures by the Democrats.
Today, the financial and industrial sectors have still not taken off, perhaps due to amendments to the Program that provide for the redistribution of budget funds in favor of the mostly democratic states. The Republicans are not getting enough this time, and the big industrialists are not happy. Nevertheless, a smooth increase is evident.
At 8:30 am ET, the Dow Industrial Average gained 354.47 points (1.1%), the S&P 500 increased by 56.13 points (1.44%), and the Nasdaq Composite added 325.20 points (2.49%).
We can say that high-tech companies were in a good plus. So, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., another capitalized "meme" added 5%.
Bumble Inc., rose by as much as 14% after reporting good revenue for the first quarter of 2021, but Oracle Corp., fell by 7% due to a shortfall in expected profits amid increased competition with the giants Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
The S&P 500 posted 68 new highs and no lows. On the Nasdaq, the numbers are also positive: 369 new highs and 18 new lows, which is normal for a highly volatile index.
What about the EUR/USD pair?
The EUR/USD pair is rising well and it is unlikely to have a big rebound until the end of the session. Its behavior is fully consistent with the preliminary forecast made on the eve of the European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement for the next quarter.
