Live Fire Drills, Alibaba, BoE Hike, Jobless Claims - What's Moving Markets By Investing.com - Investing.com

releases weekly jobless claims and monthly trade data, and oil hits a six-month low after another big build in U.S.

Here's what you need to know in financial markets on Thursday, August 4.

However, China’s stock markets recovered after three days of selling, while Taiwan’s only slipped another 0.5%.

Jobless claims to shine light on labor market cool-off; trade data due.

will release weekly jobless claims data at 08:30 AM ET, with expectations firmly set for another rise after the Labor Department’s Job Openings survey for June showed a sharp drop in the number of vacancies.

Analysts expect initial jobless claims to have risen to 259,000 last week.

trade data for July is also due at the same time as the claims data, while Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester may deliver a verdict on the numbers when she speaks at 11:00 AM ET.

stock markets are set to open higher later, building on the gains posted on Wednesday in response to the drop in oil prices after U.S.

Stocks in focus on Thursday include Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), which is set to report earnings at 07:00 AM ET against a difficult backdrop: the Financial Times reported earlier that its biggest foreign investor, Japan’s Softbank (TYO:9984) – has sold forward over half of its remaining stake, potentially creating a big overhang in the stock in the coming months.

Bank of England set (possibly) for biggest rate hike since 1990s.

The latter would represent the Bank’s biggest rate hike since it regained its operational independence under Tony Blair’s government in the 1990s.

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