U.S. Stocks Mixed As Continuing Jobless Claims Unexpetedly Increased

Initial Jobless Claims Remain Unchanged At 884,000

U.S. has just provided new Initial Jobless Claims and Continuing Jobless Claims reports.

Initial Jobless Claims report indicated that 884,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits in one week. The previous report was revised from 881,000 to 884,000, so Initial Jobless Claims were completely unchanged compared to the previous week’s level.

Meanwhile, Continuing Jobless Claims increased from 13.29 million (a revision from 13.25 million) to 13.39 million, compared to analyst consensus of 12.93 million.

Employment reports were clearly worse than analyst expectations, and S&P 500 futures dipped into the negative territory in premarket trading but remained little changed.

U.S. Republicans Propose Coronavirus Aid Package Worth $300 Billion

Coronavirus aid package negotiatons come back into spotlight as U.S. Senate is set to vote on Republicans’ proposal worth $300 billion. This proposal is significantly smaller than the previous Republican plan to provide $1 trillion in aid.

It is also dramatically smaller than the Democrats’ plan to offer more than $3 trillion in aid. While Democrats have previously offered to cut their coronavirus aid package plan to about $2.2 billion, Republicans did not show any desire to materially increase their own proposal.

The U.S. economy needs additional stimulus to support consumer activity so there is a clear need for the next aid package. However, it remains to be seen whether Democrats and Republicans will be able to reach consensus on the new aid bill proposed by Republicans.

European Central Bank Leaves The Interest Rate Unchanged At 0%

European Central Bank has just announced that its interest rate will remain unchanged at 0.00% and stated that it would continue its asset purchases under the pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP).

ECB noted that it would make purchases under PEPP until at least the end of June 2021 or until it sees that the coronavirus crisis is over, which means that asset purchases may be continued after mid-2021.

ECB also promised to keep interest rates at current or even lower levels until its inflation outlook gets to levels close to 2%. Unlike the U.S. Fed, ECB decided not to adopt an average inflation target of 2%.

At this point, the market’s reaction is muted. However, if traders decide that ECB was not dovish enough, they will push euro higher, putting pressure on the U.S. dollar. Weaker U.S. dollar may provide additional support to U.S. stocks.

For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar.