The local market will start Friday’s session weak and looking for local leads after Wall Street finished with small gains after another 5.5 million Americans filed their first-time job claims, taking the number filed in the past month to 22 million.
Wall Street couldn’t make up its mind if this was good or bad news – and along with another weak manufacturing index and a slump in new housing starts in March, eventually clung onto small gains by the close.
The Dow closed up 33.33 points, or 0.14%, at 23,537.68, the S&P 500 added 16.19 points, or 0.58%, to 2,799.55 and the Nasdaq Composite added 139.19 points, or 1.66%, to end at 8,532.36.
The overnight futures trading for the ASX 200 saw a loss of around 33 points just after 6.30 am.
That was after ASX 200 fell 50.4 points, or 0.9% on Thursday to end at 5,416.3.
Investors though are looking for the Chinese GDP figures later today for March, as well as data on industrial production, urban investment, and retail sales, with the strength of the latter telling us a lot about the extent of any recovery in consumer demand in the country.
The US Labour Department said 5.25 million people who had lost jobs applied for unemployment benefits last week, pushing the number of coronavirus-related layoffs to more than 21 million in just one month.
That’s almost as many jobs as was created from 2009 (when the rebound from the GFC started) to February this year.
That was said to be a very conservative estimate because delays, mishandling of claim forms and other administrative hiccups have overwhelmed many states reporting systems. Economists expect another 4 million-plus rise next week.
As well, housing starts slumped by more than 22% in March – well above forecasts and the Philadelphia Fed’s manufacturing index fell to -56.6 in April, the lowest reading since July 1980.
That was a day after a similar survey for New York saw a plunge to the lowest level since 1946.
Trading was marked by new highs for the two companies that investors have singled out as the biggest beneficiaries from the lock down.
Streaming video giant, Netflix, saw its shares rise 2.9% to $US439.17 at the close for a record close. It touched an all time high of $US449.52 in trading.
And Amazon shares enjoyed a similar path, closing at a record $US2,408.19, up 4.3%. It touched an all time high of $US2,461 in trading.
For the year so far Netflix shares have risen 35.7% and Amazon shares are up more than 30%.
Shares in giant retailer, Walmart also hit a new high on Thursday of $US132.92 in trading and finished the day with a small gain at $US132.35, which was also the highest ever close.
Compared to Amazon and Netflix, Walmart shares are up a more sedate 11% so far in 2020.
