It's Hard Not to Be 'Depressed'

Here come the depression-level data. US jobless claims soared a further 5.2 million in the past week, meaning that around 22 million jobs have now been shed in the past four weeks. That undoes all the jobs created since the end of the Global Financial Crisis, which is seen as unprecedented in the structural economic damage that it wrought. Yet we are still only four weeks in to this: does anyone think the sudden slump in demand from 22 million newly unemployed, let alone the broader impact of ongoing lockdowns, won't see a further massive initial claims print next week, and the week after, and the one after that, and so on?

I have written about economics and markets for over 20 years and try (and often fail) to detach myself from some of the wilder, more unusual, or more illogical and/or unsustainable movements one sees. However, US equities rallying for a fourth successive week on the back of a fourth successive print showing millions of US citizens losing their jobs is a real splinter in the mind's eye: maybe if everyone loses their job equities could double?