In this week’s recap, we find that U.S. stocks ended Thursday in the worst daily performance in nearly 3 weeks, as investors across the globe retreated from risky assets. Investors are increasingly concerned about U.S. labor shortages & supply chain bottlenecks, hurting overall economic growth.

In the U.S. weekly jobless claims report Thursday indicated an overall slowdown in job growth. 1st-time applicants for unemployment benefits unexpectedly jumped to 373K in the week ending July 3. Investors expected 350K for initial claims. The increase in initial filings for unemployment insurance comes after June’s jobs report last Friday with the U.S. unemployment rate rising to +5.9%, higher than was expected.

Officials in Australia, South Africa & Asia have recently reintroduced curfews or other measures to curb rising delta variant Covid outbreaks. Already the dominant variant in the U.S., the delta variant is predicted to hit the states with the lowest vaccination rates the hardest later this year. High vaccination rates in the U.S. & the warmer summer months have supposedly slowed the spread of the virus there.

The post Recap July 11: Exploding Cases, Exploding Prices, Exploding Disasters (Recap Ep131) appeared first on Investing & Day Trading Education: Day Trading Academy.