It’s Thursday, which means that jobless claims data was reported.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that 712,000 Americans filed for first-time jobless benefits in the week ended Nov. 28, down from a revised 787,000 claims the week earlier. Economists polled by FactSet had been expecting claims of 778,000.
Continuing claims, which are the number of people not just filing but staying on unemployment benefits, came in at 5.52 million for the week ended Nov. 14, down from a revised 6.089 million the previous week, the Labor Department said.
Jim Cramer is going live at 10:30 A.M. ET, Thursday Dec. 3 to talk jobless claims, the economy, Snowflake (SNOW) – Get Report, Dollar General (DG) – Get Report and more:
And this comes as Wednesday marked the highest number of deaths from COVID-19 in the United States. Over 2,700 Americans died from the disease, according to Johns Hopkins, and the number of patients hospitalized from COVID-19 surpassed 100,000.
Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned that total deaths from Covid-19 could reach “close to 450,000” by February unless Americans take greater precautions.
Over 273,000 Americans have died from the virus.
“The reality is, December and January and February are going to be rough times,” said Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the CDC. “I actually believe they’re going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation.”
On Wednesday, the S&P 500 posted its second straight record close after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for stimulus talks to begin. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged Congress on Wednesday to approve a Covid-19 relief bill.
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