Markets shrug off record jobless claims as US tops COVID-19 cases

Markets were mostly higher on Thursday.

The S&P 500 surged 6.2 percent and the STOXX Europe 600 jumped 2.6 percent. However, the Nikkei 225 tumbled 4.5 percent.

US stocks were boosted by the passage late Wednesday of an emergency relief package intended to help mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. That helped investors shrug off a record 3.28 million in claims for unemployment benefits last week.

“Investors cheered the impressive global policy response, but today’s data have them knowing the battle is daunting,” said economist David Rosenberg in a note.

Indeed, latest data from Johns Hopkins University show that the US now has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world, surpassing Italy and China.

Still, Paul Tudor Jones, founder of Tudor Investment and Just Capital, told CNBC on Thursday that the market could be higher by June.

“My guess is one of the reasons the market’s up right now is because of all the month-end rebalancing,” said Jones. “That’s one reason my guess is we’ll stay firm into month-end and then we’ll be challenged in April.”

“My guess is we’ll be higher three or four months from now, five months from now, than lower than where we are right now,” he added.