USA TODAY International Edition
Stocks, jobless claims still rise
U. S. stocks notched their first three- day rally in six weeks Thursday on hopes that Congress will quickly approve a coronavirus rescue package for the economy while the outbreak in China is showing signs that it has been largely contained.
The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 1,351.62 points, or 6.4%, to close at 22,552.17. The blue- chip average has advanced 21.3% over the past three days, its biggest three- day gain since 1931. Those gains helped push the Dow back into bull market territory after ending its 11- year historic run earlier this month.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 added 6.2% to finish at 2,630.07. It has gained 17.6% over the past three days, its best percentage gain since 1933.
The gains came even as data revealed a record number of Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week following a wave of layoffs from the coronavirus pandemic.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits surged to a seasonally adjusted 3.3 million last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. That marked the highest level of claims in history.
The data shouldn’t come as a surprise, analysts say, because investors were already anticipating a significant rise in jobless claims in the near term.
“Record unemployment data is horrible news, but we knew it was going to be terrible,” says Joe Conroy, founder of Harford Retirement Planners. “What’s helped prop up the market are signs that China is starting to contain the virus.”
The data offers investors clues into the duration and severity of how the deadly virus is impacting the U. S. economy.
Confirmed coronavirus cases in America surpassed 80,000, leading to 1,136 deaths, and more confirmations are expected as the U. S. ramps up testing. The global death toll was nearly 23,000; total confirmed cases went past 500,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard.
“Investors expect that the coming weeks will likely be the worst of it,” says Michael Sheldon, chief investment officer at RDM Financial Group at Hightower. “This is likely to be short term in nature. Once the economy opens up again, all of this data should start to recover. We just don’t know how quickly or how robust the recovery will be.”