Asian markets finished mixed Thursday as investors braced themselves for the latest unemployment figures from the United States, which are expected to be a record high due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Nikkei in Japan lost 1.3% by the end of the days’ trading session, while Australia’s S&P/ASX index lost nearly 2%. The news was better from Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong, which gained 2.3%, 1.6% and 0.5%, respectively.
Across the world in Europe, Britain’s FTSE, the CAC-40 in Paris and Germany’s DAX indexes were all higher during early morning trading. U.S. futures were also in positive territory Thursday morning, with the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all trading at or near 2%. Investors are apparently ignoring Wednesday’s big losses on Wall Street, where all three indexes lost well over 4%.
Financial analysts are expecting Thursday’s jobless claims to soar well above last week’s record, which showed 3.3 million people applying for unemployment benefits.