Gamestop jobless claims, weaker Sterling

“Meme” stocks return, as GameStop rallies big

The so-called “Meme Stocks” which went viral in January have made a return to prominence today, as GameStop rose by over 100%.

$GME has recently tailed off, after its climb to a now record high of $483 per share in mid-January. Since then, the company’s share price fell to as low as $40 just a week ago.

However, just as many in the markets began to believe the opportunity had run its course, prices climbed an intraday high of $154.31 at today’s open.

The move comes following the reported ousting of Chief Financial Officer Jim Bell, with many believing this could trigger the company moving its business online.

As of writing prices continued to climb, however for how long?

Weekly Initial Jobless Claims fall to 3-month low 

As with every Thursday since the start of the pandemic, traders looked towards the release of the Initial Jobless Claims for insights into the U.S. economy. 

After an unexpected rise last week, data released by the U.S. Labor Department showed that there was a drop in claims for unemployment.

The data showed that Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 111,000 to 730,000 for the week which ended February 20th.

Although many had forecasted claims to come in at 838,000, the decline, which was a 3-month low shows that the health of the U.S. jobs market could be slowly recovering.

All eyes will now be on next week’s Non-Farm Payrolls report.

Sterling, FTSE fall despite UK lowering COVID-19 alert level 

The UK government today announced that it will be lowering its COVID-19 alert level as the number of infections continues to fall.

A statement from the Health Ministry  read that, "Following advice from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and in the light of the most recent data, the four UK Chief Medical Officers and NHS England National Medical Director agree that the UK alert level should move from level 5 to level 4 in all four nations".

The news comes just days after Prime Minister, Boris Johnson revealed his plans for the easing of lockdown restrictions.

Despite this, both Sterling and the FTSE 100 fell in trading today. Firstly with GBPUSD falling to an intraday low of 1.4032, with London’s FTSE 100 index down 0.11%.

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