Rally pauses | Job losses continue | Facebook work-from-home plans
EDITOR'S NOTE
Let's stay home and trade stocks. What else is there to do in a nation full of lockdowns and stimulus checks?
CNBC's Maggie Fitzgerald writes that securities trading was one of the most common uses of the government payments issued to ease the economic strain of the coronavirus pandemic.
People earning between $35,000 and $75,000 annually increased stock trading by 90% more after receiving their stimulus checks, according to software and data aggregation company Envestnet Yodlee. Americans earning $100,000 to $150,000 annually boosted trading by 82%.  The money was supposed to be for necessities, but perhaps for many Americans, taking it to the stock market was like running to the racetrack to try to win the rent money. At least, the market had their backs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 are up nearly 35% from their March lows.
Stocks, however, were down slightly on Thursday, with investors showing no reaction to an ugly jobless claims report.Another 2.4 million people filed for unemployment in the week ended May 9, bringing the pandemic's toll to more than 38 million jobless claims so far.
Investors continue to ignore bad news. And bad employment news keeps coming with little relief from state-by-state reopening efforts, writes CNBC's Patti Domm.
"The floodwaters are still rising in the labor market," said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank, "and it doesn't look like there's any hope at the moment."
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