EDITOR'S NOTE
Stocks rallied Wednesday, notching back-to-back winning sessions that accelerated hopes for a bottom to this bear market.
Congress agreed to a $2 trillion stimulus bill and long-beleaguered Boeing led the Dow Jones Industrial Average higher as its stock soared as much as 30% on hopes for a federal bailout.
Late in the session, Sen. Bernie Sanders threatened to hold up the bill, addressing what he called a "$500 billion corporate welfare fund." His threat took stocks well off their highs of the day.
On Thursday we'll get more bad news. CNBC's Patti Domm writes that we are facing the biggest layoff of American workers ever - at least in so short a time. Estimates for the number of unemployment claims that we'll see at 8:30 a.m. ET range between 1 million and 4 million. 
“This shouldn’t be an economic figure that sends the stock market plummeting.” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank. "Most economists have already written off the second quarter as ‘Great Depression’ style economic growth.”
The numbers will at least give investors an initial glance at the depths of the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic, and in a fast-changing global crisis they will shape economic forecasts going forward.
“It will be closely watched as a measure of how violent the shutdowns have been to the labor market,” said Jon Hill, fixed income strategist at BMO.
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