New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange was evolving close to balance on Thursday after figures showing an exceptionally high number of new unemployment benefit claimants in the United States, but down from the previous week.

Around 1:40 p.m. GMT, its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, rose 0.16% to 24,614.16 points.

The Nasdaq, with a strong technological coloring, took 0.19% to 9,393.35 points.

The S&P 500, which represents the 500 largest companies on Wall Street, appreciated by 0.11% to 2,974.83 points.

Wall Street had ended up sharply on Wednesday in an optimistic market on the recovery of the American economy and supported by several technology stocks, including Facebook and Amazon which reached a new record: the Dow Jones had gained 1.52% and the Nasdaq 2.08%

More than 2.43 million Americans were newly unemployed last week, according to figures released Thursday by the Labor Department.

The world's leading economy remains heavily affected by the consequences of the sudden slowdown in activity caused by the new coronavirus.

The number of new unemployment benefit claimants is, however, down compared to the previous week and has continued to decline since a peak of 6.8 million new unemployed workers reached at the end of March.

"These are staggering numbers, but the market is looking beyond them, firmly believing that things can only improve and that the reopening of the economy will cause more rehires than new layoffs," comments Patrick O'Hare. debriefing.

In total, since the brutal shutdown of the economy in mid-March with the implementation of massive containment measures to contain the pandemic, more than 38.6 million people have become unemployed.

In addition, manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region (northeast of the United States) remained in the red in May for the third month in a row, still affected by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the index of the local antenna of the American Federal Reserve (Fed), also published Thursday.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on the US debt fell slightly, to 0.6753% against 0.6801% Wednesday evening.

© 2020 AFP