Over the past two days, the European market received both good and bad news. Somehow, both are related to the novel virus that took over the world.
First, the Eurozone unemployment rate was published today by Eurostat. The rate came in at 7.4% for May, as, at that time, countries started to reopen, and workers were able to return to jobs. The rate is the worst reading since November 2019, and it means that 12.146 million people were unemployed two months ago.
The unemployment youth rate with focuses on people between 15-24 years old, increased to 16% from April’s 15.7%.
However, experts are looking for higher figures, as governments reduced the benefits programs. They have a decade-old example in the last crisis; the unemployment rate was slightly higher than 12%.
Meanwhile, all eyes are on European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, who is due to speak on Friday, though she already announced that the world should be aware of the second wave of infections, we could be past the worst point of the pandemic. The ECB expects a GDP contraction of 8.7% for the Eurozone for this year, with a 5.2% rebound in 2021.
Second, the markets were moved by positive data received from a COVID-19 potential vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. It is one of the four potential vaccines that companies are working on. The study showed that the drug created neutralizing antibodies. Pfizer is to manufacture around 100 million doses by the end of the year, and probably more than 1.2 billion by the finish of 2021.
Pfizer stock price gained more than 3% after the announcement. Europe50 gained 1.3% during morning trading.
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Sources: forexfactory.com, cnbc.com
