Number of New Jobless Claims in the U.S. Shows Signs of Picking Up / Gold Prices Break its Downtrend

The number of new jobless claims in the United States rebounded to 744,000 last week. The market originally expected 680,000, an increase of 16,000 from the previous value. During the period, the number of people who continued to claim unemployment benefits decreased by 16,000 to 3.734 million, but still higher than market expectations of 3.654 million. The data shows that the US job market is still long ways from recovering. However, as the vaccination program is more extensive, coupled with the support of huge fiscal stimulus policies, the market expects companies to pick up pace in its recruitment plans in the next few months.

Gold experienced last week’s low point turbulence, and is re-welcoming the return of the bull market. It is currently oscillating around $1755. Following the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, Fed Chairman Powell released a dovish message saying that the U.S. economy has a bright future, but the U.S. economic recovery is still incomplete and uneven. In addition, the initial unemployment data in the United States was worse than expected. About 9 million to 10 million people are still unemployed and need to continue to receive assistance, making the dollar’s bullish momentum again suffered a severe setback. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond has fallen successively. As of 08:15 Hong Kong time, it had fallen by 0.03% to US$1.632. Supporting the continued bullish rise in gold prices, but under the prospect of uneven economic recovery, we still need to pay attention to the updated risk indicators of the global epidemic. As of 08:15 Hong Kong time, the price of gold fell by 0.09% to US$1,754.20.