Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com — U.S. stocks opened higher Thursday following a rise in first jobless claims that tempered concerns about aggressive Federal Reserve interest rate increases. 

The stock was at 9:40 ET (1440 GMT) and had gained 151 points or 0.4% to 35,179 points. This recoups around half the losses it suffered in Wednesday’s market crash. Also, the index was up 0.5% while the index was up 1.0%.

The Labor Department stated earlier that the initial number of jobless claims rose by 286,000 to 3 months, far more than forecasted, against the backdrop of severe disruptions to the services sector, including the Omicron-variant Covid-19 wave. The federal government has withdrawn most of its support for the victims of the pandemic. Any increase in joblessness will likely have an immediate effect on the final demand, and also redressing the labor market balance.

In a note to clients, Nancy Vanden Houten from Oxford Economics stated that the rise in claims is due both to an increase in layoffs caused by Covid cases and an additional boost from large season adjustment factors. However, she said that the weekly average of new infections will trend back to around 200 000 once the Omicron wave is over. It is possible that it has already occurred, as the 7-day average number of new infections dropped by 6% after peaking last week. 

United Airlines (NASDAQ) shares fell 2.2% on a difficult day for earnings. It had warned it that its capacity will not return to the pre-pandemic level until at least next year. Rival American Airlines Group The stock (NASDAQ) suffered also as it reported a loss of $931 million for the quarter. In its quarterly report, however, it spoke only in vague terms about returning profit. 

Even if the news flow was negative, it did not affect freight services. Union Pacific After strong quarters from railroad operators, CSX stock (NASDAQ:) rose 1.7%. UPR’s results were bolstered by shipments to industrial materials.