Crypto Market Briefly Turns Red as U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Down to 228K

• The report also gave the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate of 1.3%.
• U.S. stocks dropped on Thursday after the release of fresh macroeconomic data.

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) said on Thursday that around 228,000 people applied for unemployment benefits in the week ending April 1. The market had predicted 240,000 jobs would be created, hence this number was below expectations (which was corrected from 191,000).

The report also gave the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate of 1.3% and the 4-week moving average of 237,750, which was a reduction of 4,250 from the previous week’s corrected average. Both of these numbers are down from the corrected total from the prior week.

After the epidemic, most of the new jobs created have been in service industries like restaurants and bars. During the week ending March 25, the DOL reports that “the advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment was 1,823,000,” an increase of 6,000 over the preceding week’s adjusted level.

Minor Drop Witnessed

U.S. stocks dropped on Thursday after the release of fresh macroeconomic data, with the stronger-than-expected unemployment claims adding to concerns about an impending recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average went down 136 points, or 0.4%, the S&P 500 dropped 0.5%, and the NASDAQ Composite dropped 0.7%.

Yet, there was also a minor drop in the value of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin’s price briefly went to $27,922. Although the prices bounced back and BTC is now trading over the $28k mark as per data from CMC. On the other hand, Ethereum managed to maintain bullish momentum in anticipation of the upcoming Shapella upgrade, with a minor decline of 1.24%. The upgrade is scheduled for April 12 and investors are excited about the upgrade.