Jobless claims unexpectedly rise - May 19, 2022

Global stocks tumbled Thursday following Wall Street’s worst day in nearly two years and jobless claims climbed to their highest level since January. Target reported a 52% drop in profit for the first quarter, which the company blamed on higher expenses due to supply chain disruptions. Cisco shares plunged nearly 15% in premarket trading after the tech company warned that global politics and shutdowns in China would eliminate revenue growth. Economists said retail results are reflective of the migration into a more constrained consumer economy. The European Union’s executive arm moved to jumpstart plans for the 27-nation bloc to abandon Russian energy amid the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, proposing a nearly 300 billion-euro package that would accelerate the rollout of renewable power. Germany, which relied on Russia for the bulk of its oil, natural gas and coal, brought forward its goal of 100% renewable power by more than a decade to 2035. The urgency to ditch Russian energy ratcheted up in April when the country cut off supplies to Poland and Bulgaria. The Biden administration on Wednesday invoked a wartime tool, the Defense Production Act, in an effort to address the nationwide shortage of baby formula. The law, which Congress first passed in the early days of the Korean War, reflects the magnitude of the supply crunch. Separately, the U.S. is also launching Operation Fly Formula in an effort to increase imports of formula from abroad. For the week ending May 8, 43% of formula was out of stock at retailers nationwide, up from 31% a month ago and around 11% in November. Federal health officials warned the number of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations could get worse in the coming months, urging areas hit hardest to consider reissuing calls for indoor mask mandates. Currently, about a third of the U.S. population lives in areas considered higher risk. Officials noted that with more at-home COVID-19 tests available, most Americans are not reporting their results to officials, resulting in infection totals