U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Drop To 242K; Crypto Market Tanks

Crypto News: According to data published by the Department of Labour on Thursday, the number of people filing their initial claims for weekly unemployment benefits decreased to 242,000 from 264,000 the previous week. This represents a substantial 22,000 decrease from the previous week’s figure.

U.S. Jobless Claims Take A Dip

Continuing claims, which are made by individuals who have received unemployment benefits for more than one week, decreased to 1.799 million for the week ending May 6 from a revised total of 1.807 million for the week prior. However, according to the consensus estimates, econometricians anticipated that the recent initial claims and continuing claims report would come in at a seasonally adjusted total of 254,000 and 1.818 million, respectively.

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The Federal Reserve is currently engaged in the most rapid interest rate increasing campaign seen since the 1980s, and as a result, the labor market is being constantly monitored for any signs of stress. Even if there have been some indications of a slowdown, the labor market has remained extremely competitive, with 1.6 job vacancies for every individual who was unemployed in the month of March.

Market Reaction

In the wake of the new macroeconomic data, U.S. stocks showed signs of weakness on Thursday as the stronger-than-expected jobless claims added to fears of an upcoming recession. At the time of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 108 points or 0.35%, while the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite fell by 0.10% and 0.08% respectively.

On the other hand, the cryptocurrency market also witnessed a marginal decline. As things stand, the price of Bitcoin is currently exchanging hands at $27,232 which represents a drop of 0.19% in the past one hour as opposed to a gain of 2.56% recorded over the last twenty-four hours.

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