The U.S. will release weekly jobless claims data in a market spooked by labor market tensions, Costco, Lululemon, and Broadcom will announce their earnings. The rally in the Chinese market paused to catch its breath as investors shifted their attention to the risk of COVID-19 spreading. Here’s what you need to know about the financial market on Thursday, December 8.

1. Jobless claims will shed light on the tightness in the U.S. labor market

Usually, when weekly jobless claims show up on the block, it’s a sign of a quiet day. That’s likely to be the case this time around, but last week’s US labor market report kept the focus on labor market tensions.

This is because labor market concerns are at the heart of this week’s moves in risk assets: the US is short of workers and this is pushing up labor costs across the board, keeping upward pressure on inflation. The traditional response of U.S. companies to this issue over the past 30 years has been to move more workers to China, now, of course, no longer an option.

Analysts expect jobless claims to rise to 230,000, maintaining a slow but still clear upward trend.Secondary claims are expected to remain more or less unchanged at 1.60 million.

2- One fraud trial ends, another begins

As one high-profile fraud trial ends, another begins.

Wirecard (F:WDIG) founder and former CEO Markus Braun went on trial along with two other former executives in Munich on Thursday, marking the largest fraud trial in German history.

The trial, which is expected to last a year, has already caused upheaval in the regulatory bodies that oversee Europe’s largest economy.

On Wednesday, a U.S. judge sentenced Ramesh Balwani, the former president of the fraudulent blood-testing company Theranos, to nearly 13 years in prison. The sentence will be an interesting yardstick if any of the figures behind this year’s cryptocurrency crash are ever tried in the U.S. for fraud.

3- U.S. stock market shows modest pre-market gains; Costco and Broadcom reports expected

U.S. stock indexes are storming back to the upside despite 3 straight days of losses this week.

By 06:25 ET, the Dow Jones futures were unchanged, while the S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures posted a paltry 0.2% gain. On Wednesday, the Dow held steady while the S&P and Nasdaq lost a modest 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively, suggesting the selloff is losing strength.

Stocks that will likely be in the spotlight a little later are Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), which will reportedly merge its Waze and Maps divisions in an effort to cut costs, one of the first signs that pressure from activist investors is starting to take its toll on the company. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) will also be in the spotlight after Bloomberg reported that banks holding Twitter’s (NYSE:TWTR) share repurchase debt are considering exchanging it for a new margin loan secured by Ilon Musk’s stake in Tesla stock.

Costco (NASDAQ:COST), Lululemon (NASDAQ:LULU) and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) will report earnings after the market close.

4. Chinese market rally halted on fears of virus spreading

The rally in the Chinese market stalled as attention shifted from the announced easing of COVID-19 restrictions to concerns about how the country would cope if the infection spreads again.

The official number of cases has fallen sharply over the past week, but the relaxation of testing requirements means that in the short term a large proportion of disease is likely to be unreported. This raises the profile of evidence such as a Financial Times report that there is a shortage of medicines in the country.

The FT quotes local health officials as saying that pharmacies in a Beijing neighborhood where a recent COVID-19 outbreak occurred have run out of essential drugs such as ibuprofen and paracetamol. According to the FT model, a winter wave of COVID-19 could kill up to 1 million people.

5. Oil went up

Oil prices showed a slight recovery the previous day as supply delays across the Bosphorus Strait created a solid foundation in the spot market. WTI futures rose 1.7% to $73.22 per barrel, while Brent futures rose 1.0% to $77.97 per barrel