Wall Street surged on Thursday as record weekly jobless claims came in below investors' worst fears, making a case for more aggressive stimulus to aid businesses and families wrecked by the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits surged to 3.28 million last week as state-wide lockdowns brought the economy to a halt and unleashed a wave of layoffs, but was still below estimates ranging as high as 4 million. "This is the first alarming data print, but the whisper number was probably higher than that so it does seem like there's a little bit of relief in the market," said Shawn Snyder, head of investment strategy at Citi Personal Wealth Management in New York.