Markets mixed, Powell mentions “pulling back support”

Markets were mixed on Thursday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.5 percent but the STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.1 percent.

Earlier in Asia, the Nikkei 225 rose 1.1 percent but the Shanghai Composite fell 0.1 percent.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance in the US totalled 684,000 for the week ended 20 March, lower than economists' expectations.

However, with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell telling NPR that “when the economy has all but fully recovered, we will be pulling back the support that we provided during emergency times”, Mike Loewengart, managing director of investment strategy at E-Trade, warned that “if we continue to see the labor market make strides, this could translate into pressure on equities and on the Fed to reassess its accommodative stance”.