U.S. Jobless Claims Decline, Stocks On Wall Street Shake Off Early Losses

Nichole Harper
03 Jul, 2013
New York City

U.S. indexes reversed early losses and traded higher and weekly jobless claims declined for the second month in a row. Crude oil futures and gold gained after political crisis in Egypt deepened. European markets dropped more than 1% on the rising uncertainties in Portugal.

[R]12:30 PM New York – U.S. indexes reversed early losses and traded higher and weekly jobless claims declined for the second month in a row. Crude oil futures and gold gained after political crisis in Egypt deepened. European markets dropped more than 1% on the rising uncertainties in Portugal.[/R]

U.S. indexes struggled in the morning but after one hour of trading resumed the advance and financials and industrials led the gainers.

In the early trading market indexes opened lower after Portuguese government splintered raising new worries about it commitment to austerity measures and political crisis in Egypt deepened.

In New York trading, the S&P 500 index increased 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.6%.

Weekly Jobless Claims Rise

Weekly claims of jobless rate declined 5,000 at the end of last week from the 348,000 in the previous week, the Labor Department said today in Washington.

The jobless claims declined for the second week in a row and less volatile 4-week average eased 750 to 345,500.

The Labor Department is scheduled to report monthly net job gains and unemployment rate on Friday. Economists are estimating June month net employment gain on 165,000 and unemployment rate to fall to 7.5%.

Obama administration will delay the enforcement of a key provision in the healthcare reform till 2015 after the congressional elections.

Under the key provision, employers with more than 50 employees face a fine of as much as $3,000 if they don’t provide healthcare insurance.

European Markets

European markets fell sharply after the governing coalition in Portugal splintered and political crisis deepened in Egypt and crude oil future rose to a one-month high.

In London trading FTSE 100 index declined 1.2% and in Frankfurt the DAX index fell 1% and in Paris the CAC 40 index eased 1.03%.

Portugal government bond yield jumped to 8%, reaching the level last seen in November and two largest banks plunged more than 15%

Asian Markets

In Asian markets the Nikkei index gained for the fifth day in a row and the yen traded above 100 to a dollar for the first time in a month.

In Mumbai, the rupee edged lower again and dropped to 60.20 against one dollar. Only two weeks ago the rupee dropped to a record low of 60.45 and finance minister Chidambaram said India needs to raise $75 billion to bridge the current account deficit of more than 4%.