(New York)

New jobless data was released this morning and it took the market by surprise. Economists had been calling for new jobless claims to stay around the level of recent weeks—something around 695,00. But what happened was quite eye-opening: they came in at 853,000. The losses show that the economy is starting to feel renewed impacts of the surge in COVID cases. According to a job market expert, “Job destruction has not come to an end … We might be gaining jobs overall, but thousands of people are losing their jobs every week because demand has not returned”. Markets dipped on the release.

FINSUM: This is worrying for the economy. Hard to say if this trend will continue, but certainly not the direction markets have been predicting the economy would be heading.