The drop comes as the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week topped 6 million. Wall Street indices previously fell by about 4 percent after US coronavirus cases crossed the 200,000 mark and President Donald Trump warned the nation to brace itself for a spike in deaths.
US stock indices have slightly dropped on Thursday due to a record spike in US jobless claims amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reports.
The Dow Jones fell 0.59% to 20,819.46, the S&P dropped 0.48% to 2.458.54. The third major index, the Nasdaq Composite, dropped 0.59% to 7,317.45.
On Wednesday, US stocks fell by more than 3% following President Trump’s comments about a surge in coronavirus infection in the country with the death toll possible reaching 240,000.
The new coronavirus, which originated in China in December 2019, has swept across the entire globe, infecting 962,690 and killing 49,185. The pandemic also upended the global oil market after OPEC members failed to agree on an extension of production cuts beyond March.
A record 6.6 million Americans filed unemployment claims last week, doubling the previous week’s all-time high, as the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic grew from the lockdown on US businesses, the Labour Department said in its weekly jobless claims report on Thursday.
The COVID-19 has infected more than 216,000 people in the United States and killed more than 5,100.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
