US stocks slide as dismal unemployment data offsets new economic stimulus

• US stocks sank on Thursday as another dismal weekly jobless-claims report offset new economic stimulus efforts in Europe.
• US jobless claims for the week that ended on Saturday totaled 1.9 million, the Labor Department said. That exceeded the median economist estimate.
• Continuing claims, which represent the aggregate total of people actually receiving unemployment benefits, also came in higher than expected.
• Overseas, the European Central Bank boosted its emergency stimulus by $676 billion in an increased effort to combat the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
• Read more on Business Insider.

US stocks sank on Thursday as yet another dismal jobless-claims report offset a new round of emergency stimulus from the European Central Bank.

US jobless claims for the week that ended on Saturday totaled 1.9 million, the Labor Department said. That slightly exceeded the median economist estimate. Further, continuing claims — which reflect the aggregate number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits — totaled 21.5 million, more than economists expected and an increase from the previous week.

"This is a terrible number, but weekly jobless claims have been on the decline over the past few weeks," Mark Tepper, the CEO of Strategic Wealth Partners, told Business Insider. "The rise in continuing jobless claims is worrisome because it means people remained unemployed and didn't return to work."

Here's where US indexes stood at the 4 p.m. ET market close on Thursday:

• S&P 500: 3,112.35, down 0.3%
• Dow Jones industrial average: 26,281.82, up 0.1% (12 points)
• Nasdaq composite: 9,615.81, down 0.7%

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Overseas, the European Central Bank increased its stimulus efforts to combat the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. The ECB pledged to add $676 billion to its emergency stimulus efforts, stepping up its bond-buying program and bringing the total package to more than $1.5 trillion.

Amid the fluctuations, the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 surged to an intraday record. It's the first major US index to erase all its losses from the coronavirus-induced market rout.

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Warner Music Group, which just completed the largest US initial public offering this year, slid roughly 3% in its second day of trading. ZoomInfo skyrocketed as much as 100% in its first day of trading.

Oil prices slid as traders speculated that a scheduled OPEC+ meeting wouldn't take place. The nations involved were expected to discuss a possible extension of production cuts. West Texas Intermediate crude fell as much as 2.4%, to $36.38 per barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, sank 1.9%, to $39.04 per barrel, at intraday lows.

The US government will release the May jobs report on Friday. Economists expect it to show that unemployment spiked to nearly 20% in the month, the highest since the 1930s, as the economy erased 8 million jobs.

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