Stocks ended the day flat in a session rocked by news of Gilead's antiviral drug.
 | THU, APR 23, 2020 | | | | DOW | | NAME | LAST | CHG | %CHG | | XOM | 43.45 | +1.32 | +3.13% | | MSFT | 171.42 | -2.10 | -1.21% | | INTC | 59.04 | -1.06 | -1.76% | |
| | S&P 500 | | NAME | LAST | CHG | %CHG | | GE | 6.52 | +0.09 | +1.40% | | AMD | 55.90 | -0.02 | -0.04% | | GILD | 77.78 | -3.53 | -4.34% | |
| | NASDAQ | | NAME | LAST | CHG | %CHG | | AMD | 55.90 | -0.02 | -0.04% | | GILD | 77.78 | -3.53 | -4.34% | | AAL | 10.25 | -0.02 | -0.19% | |
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It's not as bad as last week - that's the best that can be said about Thursday's jobless claims report showing another 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits. It's down from the previous weekly report that showed 5.245 million workers filing claims, so the misery appears to be waning. Still, the total from the past five reports equals 26.4 million claims, which surpasses all of the job gains since the Great Recession. "That means more than one in seven workers applied," wrote Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute. "Job losses of this magnitude would translate into an unemployment rate of 18.3%."  Investors were expecting the news, but stocks seesawed on another report that a potential coronavirus drug, remdesivir, "flopped" in a clinical trial, though the study was inconclusive. On the plus side, oil rallied from historic lows. Finding a treatment for the coronavirus, and getting people back to work, are critical to returning the U.S. economy to health. But it is a much quicker process to send workers to the unemployment line than it is to rehire them, particularly if business comes back in stages. "The duration is really the key, to see how quickly we can put those on temporary layoff or furlough back on the payrolls," said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab. Subscribe to CNBC PRO for exclusive insights and analysis, and live business day programming from around the world. |
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