Today is Thursday, so we expect the United States Labor Department to publish this week’s initial jobless claims report. So far, over 20 million Americans have lost their jobs, with the report showing weekly job loss of over 6 million at the beginning of the pandemic in the US, then 5 million, and last week 3 million. Today’s report is expected to show another 2.5 million jobs lost. Though this means that unemployment in the United States is still on the rise, the increase is far less dramatic than at the beginning of the lockdowns, which has the potential to reassure the markets.
Later in the day there will be more speeches by Federal Reserve officials that may further affect the market participants’ expectations about the monetary policy of the United States. These may echo Jerome Powell’s rhetoric from yesterday, when the Fed Chairman painted a grim picture of the US economy after the pandemic.
Because fears of a second wave of the coronavirus disease are rising, the stock markets remain under pressure. American, Europea, and Asian stock indices are all marking losses for the second day in a row.
Speaking of the coronavirus, the total number of Covid-19 cases is approaching 4.5 million. The disease continues to spread rapidly through Russia. Alarmingly, there have been over 1,500 new cases overnight in Spain, a country that is supposed to have already seen the peak of the outbreak. As many countries are relaxing their lockdowns (Spain included), we could be seeing the beginning of the second wave of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, there is some good news on the oil market. According to the International Energy Agency, the current lower supply of oil is proving effective in meeting the demand for oil. Despite claims earlier this week that oil production in the United States is once more growing, today oil prices are on the rise. The WTI is trading around $26.46, while the Brent crude reached $30.25 per barrel of oil.
