By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

Slightly more Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, but the labor market remains broadly healthy despite an ongoing trade war.

Jobless claim filings inched up by 4,000 to 223,000 for the week ending April 5, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s less than the 225,000 new applications analysts forecast.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs, and have mostly ping-ponged between 200,000 and 250,000 for the past few years.

Even though President Donald Trump put a 90-day pause on most of his widespread tariff hikes Wednesday, concerns remain about a global economic slowdown that could upend what has been an incredibly resilient labor market.

Like his pledge to institute tariffs, Trump’s promise to drastically downsize the federal government workforce is fully in motion.

It’s not clear when the job cuts ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency — or “DOGE,” spearheaded by Elon Musk — will surface in the weekly layoffs data,

Federal agencies that have either announced layoffs or are planning cuts include the Department of Health and Human Services, IRS, Small Business Administration, Veterans Affairs and Department of Education.

Despite showing some signs of weakening during the past year, the labor market remains healthy with plentiful jobs and relatively few layoffs.

Last week, the government reported that U.S. employers added a surprisingly strong 228,000 jobs in March and while the unemployment rate inched up to 4.2%, that’s a healthy figure by historical standards.

Some high-profile companies have announced job cuts already this year, including Workday, Dow, CNN, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines and Facebook parent company Meta.

The four-week average of applications, which aims to smooth out some of the week-to-week swings, was unchanged at 223,000.

The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of March 29 fell by 43,000 to 1.85 million.

By JOSH FUNK, Associated Press Business Writer

U.S. egg prices increased again last month to reach a new record-high of $6.23 per dozen despite President Donald Trump’s predictions, a drop in wholesale prices and no egg farms having bird flu outbreaks.

The increase reported Thursday in the Consumer Price Index means consumers and businesses that rely on eggs should not anticipate immediate relief. Demand for eggs is typically elevated until after Easter, which falls on April 20.

FILE – Cartons of eggs sit on a shelf in a Walmart store, March 10, 2025, in Englewood, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

Industry experts were expecting the index to reflect a drop in retail egg prices because wholesale egg prices dropped significantly in March. University of Arkansas agricultural economist Jada Thompson said the wholesale prices did not start dropping until mid-March, so there may not have been enough time for the average price for the month to decline. And grocery stores may not have immediately passed on the lower prices.

Bird flu outbreaks were cited as the major cause of price spikes in January and February after more than 30 million egg-laying chickens were killed to prevent the spread of the disease. Only 2.1 million birds were slaughtered in March and none of them were on egg farms

The farms that had fall outbreaks have been working to resume egg production after sanitizing their barns and raising new flocks, but chickens must be about six months old before they start laying eggs. Thompson said those farms did not come back online as quickly as anticipated.

Trump tried to take credit for the lower wholesale egg prices the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in recent weeks. But experts say the president’s plan to fight bird flu by focusing on strengthening egg farmers’ defenses against the virus is likely to be more of a long-term help.

Since the current bird flu outbreak began, more than 168 million birds have been slaughtered, most of them egg-laying chickens. Any time a bird gets sick, the entire flock is killed to help keep bird flu from spreading. That can have an effect on the egg supply because massive egg farms may have millions of birds.

The disease is difficult to control because it is spread easily through the droppings of wild birds that carry the avian flu virus. Bird flu has also inflected other animals, including dairy cattle.

Egg prices hit $5.90 in February one month after setting a record at $4.95 per dozen, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But shoppers encountered prices much higher than that in some places; in California, the price per dozen topped $12 in some stores.

Earlier in the outbreak, egg prices spiked to hit $4.82 in January 2023 before gradually falling as low as $2.04 per dozen in August 2023. Generally, prices have since increased steadily.

By YURI KAGEYAMA and MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writers

Markets on Wall Street Thursday were poised to gave back some of the historic gains made a day earlier when President Donald Trump paused his latest tariff hikes on U.S. trading partners, with the exception of China.

Futures for the S&P 500 were down 1.7% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.4%. Nasdaq futures gave back 2%.

It’s been a wild couple of weeks on Wall Street with Trump’s tariff announcements, reversals and retaliation from U.S. trading partners. That volatility seems unlikely to change in the coming weeks with the U.S. and China still locked in a tit-for-tat tariff battle and earnings season kicking off on Friday with the latest results from some of the nation’s biggest banks.

In early trading Thursday, technology stocks were the biggest drag on markets, followed by the industrial and the financial sectors.

Coming later in the morning are the U.S. government’s latest consumer inflation data and the weekly layoffs report.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 surged 9.5%, its third-best day since 1940. The index is still below where it was when Trump announced his sweeping set of tariffs last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shot to a gain of nearly 3,000 points, or 7.9%. The Nasdaq composite leaped 12.2%.

Investors went “from fear to euphoria,” Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said in a commentary.

“It’s now a manageable risk, especially as global recession tail bets get unwound, and most of Asia’s exporters breathe a massive sigh of relief,” Innes said.

Following the hard-to-fathom rebound in U.S. markets Wednesday, world markets soared on Thursday, with Japan’s benchmark jumping more than 9%.

Chinese shares saw more moderate gains, given yet another jump in the tariffs each side is imposing on each others’ exports.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX initially gained more than 8%, but lost some of that momentum and were up 5.7% at midday. The CAC 40 in Paris gained 5.6% and Britain’s FTSE 100 surged 4.3%.

Analysts had expected the global comeback given that U.S. stocks had one of their best days in history on Wednesday as investors registered their relief over Trump’s decision.

“Everything is still very volatile, because with Donald Trump, you don’t know what to expect,” said Francis Lun, chief executive of Geo Securities. “This is really big uncertainty in the market. The threat of recession has not faded.”

Markets had been sinking earlier Wednesday on worries that Trump’s trade war could drag the global economy into a recession. But then came the posting on social media that investors worldwide had been waiting and wishing for.

“I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE,” Trump said, saying more than 75 countries are negotiating on trade and not retaliating against his latest increases in tariffs. China was a huge exception, with Trump saying tariffs are going up to 125% against its products.

The trade war is not over, and an escalating battle between the world’s two largest economies can create plenty of damage. U.S. stocks are also still below where they were just a week ago.

In Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 9.1% to finish at 34,609.00, zooming upward as soon as trading began.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 soared 4.5% to 7,709.60. South Korea’s Kospi gained 6.6% to 2,445.06. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 2.1% to 20,681.78. The Shanghai Composite rose 1.2% to 3,223.64.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.66 to $60.69 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained $1.01 to $63.83 a barrel.

By LISA MASCARO and KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — After abruptly halting votes, House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed to try again Thursday to approve a Republican budget framework, having worked into the night to satisfy GOP holdouts who refused to advance trillions of dollars in tax breaks without deeper spending cuts.

Even a hefty push from President Donald Trump couldn’t heave the package to approval. Johnson was forced to abandon Wednesday’s scheduled action as the Republican hardliners left him without enough support, and risked upending what the president calls the “big, beautiful bill,” which is central to his agenda of tax cuts, mass deportations and a smaller federal government.

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“The president is very anxious for us to get this done,” Johnson, R-La., said as he left a late-night meeting with the GOP lawmakers. He said he expects votes on Thursday.

Pushing the budget framework forward would log another milestone for Johnson, who can only lose a few detractors from his slim majority. A failed vote, particularly as the economy was convulsing over Trump’s trade wars, would be a major setback for the Republican agenda in Washington.

“Stop grandstanding!” Trump had admonished Republicans during a black-tie fundraising dinner at the National Building Museum earlier in the week.

Trump told the Republicans, “Close your eyes and get there.”

But by Wednesday afternoon, the outcome was in flux. At least a dozen conservative Republicans, if not more, stood firmly against the plan. Several of them, including members of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus, made the unusual move of walking across the Capitol to meet privately with Senate GOP leaders to insist on deeper cuts.

As night fell, Johnson pulled a group of Republicans into a private meeting room as House proceedings came to a standstill. They stayed into the night hashing out alternatives.

Johnson said he spoke with Trump for about five minutes while the GOP meeting was taking place. The GOP speaker said they’re trying to figure out the minimal number of cuts and savings “that will satisfy everyone.”

Options include amending the Senate bill or having a conference committee work out the differences, among others. “There’s a few different ideas on the table,” Johnson said.

“We want everybody to have a high degree of comfort about what is happening here, and we have a small subset of members who weren’t totally satisfied with the product as it stands,” Johnson said.

But House GOP conservatives, including several of those who met personally with Trump at the White House this week, remained concerned that the Senate GOP’s blueprint, approved last weekend, does not slash spending to the level they believe is necessary to help prevent soaring deficits.

“The Math Does Not Add Up,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, posted on social media. He said he would not support it.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, listens as the Republican plan to advance President Donald Trump’s top domestic priorities on spending reductions and tax breaks is prepared in the House Rules Committee for a floor vote, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. The deficit hawk has blasted the GOP plan drawing the ire of both Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the chair of the Freedom Caucus, led others to met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and other top Senate Republicans.

“All we can do is make sure that they understand where we’re coming from and how close we want to work with them to get to the final product,” Thune said afterward.

But the Senate GOP leader panned the idea of the House sending back an amended version, which would require another potential all-night voting session like the one senators endured last weekend. “We can’t do that — another vote-a-rama, that drags it on indefinitely,” Thune said.

The House and Senate are still at the beginning phase of a process that will take weeks, if not months, as they turn their budget resolutions into legislative text — a final product with more votes ahead later this spring or summer.

Democrats, in the minority, do not have enough votes to stop the package, but have warned against it.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said the Republicans’ budget plan is reckless and callous as it proposes slashing budgets to give tax breaks to the wealthy.

“We’re here to make it clear,” Jeffries said. “Hands off everyday Americans struggling to make ends meet.”

Central to the budget framework is the Republican effort to preserve the tax breaks approved in 2017, during Trump’s first term, while potentially adding the new ones he promised on the campaign trail. That includes no taxes on tipped wages, Social Security income and others, ballooning the price tag to some $7 trillion over the decade.

The package also allows for budget increases with some $175 billion to pay for Trump’s mass deportation operation and as much for the Defense Department to bolster military spending.

It all would be partly paid for with steep cuts to domestic programs, including health care, as part of the $2 trillion in reductions outlined in the House GOP version of the package, though several GOP senators have signaled they are not willing to go that far.

To clip costs, the Senate is using an unusual accounting method that does not count the costs of preserving the 2017 tax cuts, some $4.5 trillion, as new spending, another factor that is enraging the House conservatives.

Two Republican senators voted against their package during an overnight weekend session — Maine Sen. Susan Collins objected to steep cuts to Medicaid in the House’s framework, while Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul argued the whole package relied on “fishy” math that would add to the debt.

The package would also boost the nation’s debt limit to allow more borrowing to pay the bills. Trump had wanted lawmakers to take the politically difficult issue off the table. With debt now at $36 trillion, the Treasury Department has said it will run out of funds by August.

But the House and Senate need to resolve their differences on the debt limit, as well. The House GOP raises the debt limit by $4 trillion, but the Senate GOP boosted it to $5 trillion so Congress would not have to revisit the issue again until after the fall 2026 midterm election.

With Trump’s trade wars hovering over the debate, House Republicans tucked a provision into a procedural vote that would prevent House action — as the Senate has taken — to disapprove of Trump’s tariffs.

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Stephen Groves, Leah Askarinam and Matt Brown contributed to this report.