© Reuters
Investing.com – The US unemployment data was released minutes ago which comes a day ahead of the important US employment data.
The US economy received 183,000 jobless claims, while experts expected it to receive 200,000 jobless claims, after receiving only 186,000 last week.
The average number of jobless claims in 4 weeks moved to 191.75 thousand, after reaching 197.50 thousand last week.
Positive data reveals the strength of the US labor market, despite the tightening policies of the US Federal Reserve.
The Federal Labor Market
Yesterday, the Federal Reserve announced a 25 basis point hike in interest rates, bringing US interest rates to 4.75%. The Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell, spoke in the press conference that followed the announcement of the decision about the Fed’s need for more tightening and raising interest rates.
Powell pointed to the strength of the US market and good employment and unemployment data.
Markets after the data
It is now rising by 1.25% to $1,967.35, up $25 yesterday, following Powell’s conference call, while spot contracts rose to $1,951.50.
The American is now recording 100.955 points against a basket of foreign currencies, on top of which is trading bearishly, after the European Central Bank announced raising interest rates and its tendency to raise more.
As for silver, it is trading at 24.490, up by 3.71%.
It trades at $76.03 per barrel, down by 0.50%, and crude at $82.26 per barrel, down by 0.70%.
As for the US index futures, they did not go in one direction, as the rise of Meta shares (NASDAQ:) led in pre-opening trading the Nasdaq futures contract to rise by 1.72%, while it settled at 34131 points, and the futures contracts managed to rise by 0.77% at 4164 points. .
Despite the US Federal Reserve’s commitment to a tough speech yesterday and his reference to the Fed’s need to raise interest rates in the upcoming meetings, and his denial of the existence of a break in the Fed’s meetings. However, his statement that inflation has entered a downward phase led the markets to adjust their interest expectations by the end of the year from 4.9% to 4.4%, expecting that the Fed will begin to reduce interest rates before the end of 2023.