US initial jobless claims unexpectedly rise

(Sharecast News) - Initial jobless claims rose unexpectedly from last week's upwardly revised print of 845,000 to 898,000 in the week ended 10 October, well above expectations for a reading of 825,000.
The reading marked the seventh straight week that claims were above 800,000, indicating a potential slowdown in the US labour market recovery.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in mid-March, roughly 64.5m Americans have applied for jobless benefits, according to figures from the Department of Labor.

The four-week moving average increased by 8,000 to 866,250, while the previous week's average was revised up by 1,250 to 858,250.

On the other hand, continuing claims dropped from 11.18m to hit 10.01m.

Elsewhere, the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate for the week ended 3 October was 6.8%, a decrease of 0.9% from the previous week's revised rate.

AvaTrade's Naeem Aslam said: "The significant increase in the unemployment claims is another warning sign for the U.S. lawmakers to get their act together. The sad fact is that this situation is only going to get worse if we do not get any help in terms of another stimulus package.

"Traders have become a lot risk-averse on the back of this data point, hence we have seen the gold price moving higher on the back of this number. Today is not a good day for the equity markets as we have [a] slew of bad news for the markets. Hence it is very likely that bears will rule the price action today. Expect more blood on the street in terms of equity price action."