Markets mixed, US job losses continue

Markets were mixed on Thursday.

In the US, the S&P 500 fell 0.3 percent while the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed marginally higher.

Elsewhere, the STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.7 percent while the Nikkei 225 rose 0.4 percent.

While the S&P 500 snapped a streak of four consecutive gains, the recent rally suggested to Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives at the Schwab Center for Financial Research, that “things are going to get better”.

Indeed, US investors on Thursday largely shrugged off a report from ADP showing that a total of 2.76 million jobs were lost in May.

However, Mark Tepper, president and CEO of Strategic Wealth Partners, noted that the latest data on continuing claims for unemployment benefits indicate that “people remained unemployed and didn’t return to work”.

Indeed, CNBC's Jim Cramer suggested that while big businesses may be rebounding, small businesses are still suffering.

“I think we’re looking at a V-shaped recovery in the stock market, and that has almost nothing to do with a V-shaped recovery in the economy,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the ECB said it would expand its pandemic emergency purchase programme by €600 billion and extend it to June 2021.