Stocks open lower on Wall Street as job picture dims further

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are opening lower on Wall Street as more grim data pours in showing the economic damage being wrought by the coronavirus shutdowns. The S&P 500 lost 0.8% in the first few minutes of trading Thursday. The index is coming off two days of losses. Nearly 3 million people applied for unemployment benefits last week as the outbreak led more companies to slash jobs, even as many states take tentative steps to reopen businesses. As of now, 36 million people have filed for unemployment aid in the two months since the coronavirus forced millions of businesses to close their doors.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story is below:

Global shares declined Thursday on pessimism about life getting back to normal soon amid the coronavirus pandemic, after the U.S. central bank chief warned of hard times to come.

Investors were also braced for more jobless claims data out of the U.S., which are expected to show another 2 to 3 million people applied for benefits in the last week, further straining the labor market in the world’s largest economy.

In Europe, France’s CAC 40 was down 1.9% to 4,261, while Germany’s DAX fell 1.8% to 10,357. Britain’s FTSE 100 was down 2.4% at 5,765. U.S. shares were also set for declines, with Dow and S&P 500 futures both down 0.2%.

Stephen Innes, chief global strategist at AxiCorp, said markets were jittery after comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, which set off worries about the risks of corporate failure in the U.S. and job losses.

“The roller coaster recovery continues to be the theme of the week,” Innes said, noting a second wave of COVID-19 infections could be ahead if lockdowns in any part of the world are eased too quickly.

Powell urged Congress and the White House to provide more help for the economy to prevent long-lasting damage to an economy already bleeding millions of jobs.

While costly, more assistance in government spending or tax policies would be “worth it if it helps avoid long-term economic damage and leaves us with a stronger recovery,” he said.

President Donald Trump has described a newly proposed $3 trillion aid package as “dead on arrival.”

Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 1.7% to finish at 19,914.78. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.7% to 5,328.70. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.8% to 1,924.96. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 1.5% to 23,829.74, while the Shanghai Composite lost nearly 1.0% at 2,870.34.

India’s Sensex skidded 2.7% to 31,142.24. Shares also fell in Southeast Asia.

Japanese officials were preparing to announce an easing of the nationwide “state of emergency,” which has strongly requested that non-essential workers stay home. Some regions where infections aren’t spreading too much may get further reopened, although with some social distancing measures in place.

Japan has so far has reported 687 COVID-19 deaths, but has had no lockdown. Public discontent is brewing, but people are also worried about health risks and whether infections could start rising exponentially, as they did in New York, Brazil and elsewhere.

Major Japanese companies, such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp., have announced sharp drops in profits as the pandemic took hold, and have not given profit projections, or only gave partial forecasts, for the year through March 2021.

Analysts say they expect the market to remain in a wait-and-see approach for weeks as investors gauge how economic reopenings underway are going. Investors want to see if second waves of coronavirus infections occur if governments lift their restrictions on businesses too soon. Another flare-up in trade tensions between the United States and China has also recently weighed on investor sentiment.

U.S. benchmark crude gained $1.12 to $26.41 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell 65 cents to $25.68 on Wednesday. Brent crude, the international standard, rose $1.08 to $30.27 a barrel.

The dollar edged up to 107.08 Japanese yen from 107.03 yen. The euro fell to $1.0780 from $1.0818.

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