Stocks gain despite 6.6M new US unemployment claims

Domestic stocks rose today in the United States, with all major indices opening higher.

TechCrunch

has slowed its daily coverage of the US stock market as volatility has receded. We try to avoid covering the stock market too much, but there are days

when doing so would be derelict. The value of public companies impacts the value of private companies like startups

, so we have to pay at least some attention on days when shares rise or fall sharply.

Today’s opening normally wouldn’t qualify as sufficiently violent to warrant coverage. But what the open today misses in total movement it makes up in oddness: This morning the US government reported

that 6.6 million individuals filed for unemployment in the last week

, adding to the roughly 10 million that did so in the preceding two weeks. Canada’s March unemployment

, out this morning as well, was similarly awful.

Ahead of earnings, SaaS stocks show resilience

And the layoffs have continued, with Yelp this morning

announcing around 1,000 layoffs

and 1,100 furloughs. Startups are cutting staff

at a pace not seen in a decade, the economy is broadly expected to enter a recession and venture capitalists are slowing their investment cadence

as revenue losses rise

and valuations are expected to dip

.

And yet, stocks are higher. Sure, the

Fed

announced

a wave of new action this morning, but reactive band-aids to bleeding wounds don’t net out to zero in the short-term.

All this is to say that if you don’t get what you are seeing in the ticker tape this morning, you’re not alone. What the fuck is going on? I don’t know.

But, I suppose, here’s where things are at start of the day:

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: +305.81, +1.31%

• SP 500: +30.63, +1.11%

• Nasdaq Composite: +67.94, +0.84%

• Bessemer cloud index: +13.73, +1.20%

More at the close.