US Unemployment Data Surprises with Improvement... New York Stock Market Rises Across the Board (Comprehensive)

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] The number of new unemployment claims in the United States dropped sharply last week. The trend of increasing claims amid the resurgence of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) has been broken. Concerns over the July private sector employment increase of only 167,000, reported a day earlier, were also alleviated.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced on the 6th (local time) that the number of new unemployment benefit claims for the week of July 26 to August 1 decreased by 250,000 from the previous week to 1.19 million. Last week's claims were much lower than the expert forecast of 1.4 million and marked the lowest level since the COVID-19 outbreak.

This is the first time in three weeks that weekly new unemployment claims have decreased compared to the previous week. After 15 consecutive weeks of decline, new unemployment claims increased for two consecutive weeks starting mid-July due to the suspension of economic activities in California, Florida, Texas, and other states amid the spread of infections, raising concerns.

Continuing claims, which represent those claiming unemployment benefits for at least two weeks, also decreased by 840,000 to 16.1 million.

However, the number of new unemployment claims in the U.S. still remains above one million, so it is not yet a stage to be fully reassured. Up until last week, new unemployment claims in the U.S. have recorded over one million for 20 consecutive weeks.

As the unemployment situation improved, the U.S. stock market continued its strong performance. As of 10:35 a.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.27%, the S&P 500 index rose 0.08%, and the Nasdaq index increased by 0.15%.

Gold prices, which had been soaring, also showed strength today, rising about 1% to surpass $2,070 per ounce.