business newsJobless Claims Close to a Multi-Year Low
Today's financial recap and tomorrow's financial outlook.
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In Europe, the ECB and Bank of England both kept policy on hold, as was generally accepted. The ECB press conference from President Mario Draghi succeeded in moving the euro higher as he did not comment negatively about the recently depressed price of the currency. The euro rallied strongly as a result.
In the US, economic data showed jobless claims at the lowest point in about five years at a weekly pace of 340,000, down from last month's 347,000. More importantly, the January trade balance widened to -$44.4 billion, worse than the -$42.6 billion estimated. This was met with increased selling in Treasuries and a weakening dollar.
After the close, the New York Times reported that activist investor Carl Icahn was offering a bid at $15 per share for computer maker Dell (DELL). Recently, founder Michael Dell offered $13.65 per share to take the company private in a leveraged buyout. Since then, shareholders have opposed the deal and have pushed to raise the bid price.
Tomorrow's Financial Outlook
February's nonfarm payrolls report will cap off the week. Tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. ET, nonfarm payrolls are expected to grow at a monthly rate of 165,000, up from 157,000 in January. Earlier this week, the ADP private payrolls report showed a small rise over the previous month, so we can logically expect a similar outcome from tomorrow's nonfarm payrolls. The unemployment rate is forecast to remain unchanged at 7.9%.
Globally, Canada will also report job numbers in the morning at the same time as the US. Economists are expecting its unemployment rate to tick up to 7.1% from January's 7.0%. In Europe, Germany will release industrial production figures from February.
The only earnings report for the day will be released pre-market from Foot Locker (FL).
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