Thursday 19th November 2020 - 13:42 (GMT)
The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose by 742k over the latest week. This was significantly higher than the market consensus of 707k and a big spike from the previous weeks reading of 711k.
The latest figures are a far cry from the pandemic-era peak of 7 million back in April, but will spark some cause for concern following the reversal of the recent downward trend. Over 160k were added to the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which provides an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits.
21.2 million Americans in total are now claiming some sort of unemployment benefit, as the country continues to grapple with its rising coronavirus infection rates. A breakthrough in potential vaccines over the past week has given some hope to stem the rise, but over what time period remains uncertain.
Broadly, the US dollar continues to weaken as risk appetite slowly returns to the market and investors move away from safe-haven currencies. This, combined with concerns over the ability of the US to remain open throughout the coming months, has seen GBP/USD touch $1.33 and EUR/USD 1.19 in recent days.
