EU: Consumer Confidence (May): -21.9 vs -22.3 (Apr)

The US stock market was spared a gruesome opening, unlike its Asian and European counterparts Thursday. While losses were sizable, the news was somewhat mitigated after upbeat US economic data. In the United States, Initial Jobless Claims (May 17) came in at 340K, against expectations of 345K, and compared with 360K. In addition, Continuing Jobless Claims (May 11) were reported at 2.912M, beating a projection of 3.000M.