At 12:30 GMT, the US economy released its reading of the unemployment claims for the week ending April 16 at 547K, the lowest reading since March 2020, better than forecasts of 607K, and better than the previous reading of 576K after it was revised from 586K. This data is positive for the US economy.

Oil prices continued to drop as the US market opened on Thursday, to head for the third straight daily loss, and hit a 1-week low on demand concerns in India and Japan, in addition to unexpected build in the US crude inventories.

US crude fell 0.8% to a 1-week low of $60.64 a barrel, after opening at $61.11, and hit a high at $61.24, and Brent crude fell 0.75% to the lowest since April 18 at $64.60 a barrel, after opening at $65.09, and hit a high of $65.22.

US crude lost 2.2% yesterday, and Brent crude futures fell 1.8% and posted the second consecutive daily loss, due to concerns over the Asian demand.

The Indian health authorities announced on Wednesday the highest daily death toll from Covid-19, amid a huge crisis of oxygen shortage.

To mitigate these developments, the Indian authorities may resort to tightening the lockdown, which would weigh down on fuel consumption in the third largest oil consumer in Asia, which forced refiners to reduce operations.

While the Japanese Radio and Television Corporation said that the government is considering imposing a state of emergency in Tokyo and Osaka due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases.

The Energy Information Administration reported yesterday that the US crude inventories rose 600K barrels to 493 million barrels during the week ending April 16, while analysts forecasts a drop by 3.7 million barrels.

The US production remained unchanged last week, with a total of 11 million barrels per day.

The US dollar fell on Thursday, to deepen its losses for the second straight day, amid strong risk appetite after most global stock markets rallied, while the US Treasury bond yields fell, ahead of the US unemployment claims reading.

The dollar index fell over 0.1% to 91.00 points, after opening at 91.11 points, and hit a high of 91.20 points.

The US dollar fell 0.1% yesterday, after a strong rebound in US stocks.

The 10-year US treasury yields fell 1.8% today to a 1-week low of 1.531%, which lifts the market's risk appetite. 

At 12:30 GMT, the US unemployment claims reading is expected up to 0.607 million during the week ending April 16, from 0.576 million during the previous week.

The US dollar fell against most major currencies on Wednesday, and pared its early gains.

This comes amid anticipation of the results of major companies for the first quarter of this year.

Netflix revealed yesterday its quarterly business results, and reported higher-than-expected profits and revenues, but the number of new subscribers was less than expected during the three months ending on March 31.

Major companies will report their earnings results in the next few days, led by Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Facebook, Amazon and Alphabet.

Efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic are continuing by distributing millions of vaccines.

The dollar index fell against a basket of currencies by 0.1% to 91.1 points as of 18:31 GMT, after it hit a high of 91.4 points and a low of 91.09 points.