April 3, 2020
US stock market news
All major stock indexes closed higher as the stock market did not react negatively to the US weekly jobless claims hitting a new record.
“US jobless claims skyrocket to 6.6 million, doubling last week’s record, as coronavirus layoffs persist.
US weekly jobless claims have spiked to a second consecutive weekly record as coronavirus-induced layoffs persist across the country.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that 6.64 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance in the week that ended Saturday — more than double the previous week’s total.
Economists expect the US to fall into recession in the second quarter if it isn’t already in one. The sky-high jobless claims could raise the unemployment rate by multiple percentage points.”
How the stock market closed on April 2, 2020
S&P 500: 2,526.90,+56.40(+2.28%)
Dow 30: 21,413.44,+469.93(+2.24%)
Nasdaq: 7,487.31,+126.73(+1.72%)
Russell 2000: 1,077.40,+5.40(+0.50%)
Stocks gainers
Parsley Energy, Inc. (PE) stock among stock gainers with a stock price of 6.91+1.36 (+24.50%).

Stocks losers
PUMA SE (PUMSY) was among stock losers with a stock price of 5.37-0.90 (-14.35%).
Stock investing | Stock trading | Most active stocks
Marathon Oil Corporation (MRO) was among the most active stocks with a stock price of 3.4700+0.3500 (+11.22%).

Stock Market, U.S. Sectors & Industries Performance
Energy was the best performing sector +9.08%, Consumer Discretionary was the worst-performing sector +0.35%.

Source: https://eresearch.fidelity.com/eresearch/goto/markets_sectors/landing.jhtml
Economic news
The major economic news for today are the US non-farm payrolls and the unemployment rate for the US economy.
” The Department of Labor is set to release its monthly jobs report at 8:30 a.m. ET Friday. Here are the main metrics expected from the report, compared to consensus data compiled by Bloomberg as of Thursday afternoon:
- Change in non-farm payrolls, March: -100,000 vs. +273,000 in February
- Unemployment rate, March: 3.8% vs. 3.5% in February
- Average hourly earnings, month on month: +0.2% vs. +0.3% in February
- Average hourly earnings, year on year: +3.0% vs. +3.0% in February
Estimates for the March change in non-farm payrolls span a wide range, with a handful of firms anticipating payrolls actually rose modestly at the start of the month. But at the median, economists anticipate payrolls netted out to -100,000, reflecting the first drop in nonfarm payrolls since September 2010.”
Stock market update
All data about the stock market, stocks, stock investing, stock trading is taken from Yahoo Finance, Fidelity, and stockcharts.com.