The U.S markets are set for a weak close to the week, as indicators continue to point to a weak economy. Yesterday, unemployment data came out indicating that last week, 870k Americans filed for unemployment claims. While it is good since this is the fourth week that unemployment numbers have stayed below a million, it still points to a weakened economy.

According to an economist from ING, James Knightley, the peak of unemployment claims during the 2008 economic crisis was 665,000. Essentially this means that at this point in the current crisis, the number of unemployment claims is still more than two hundred thousand higher than during the last financial crisis. Such high numbers are happening at a time when the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise in the U.S. Recently, the U.S COVID-19 deaths hit 200k, and things could worsen until a vaccine is found. To make things worse, there are no guarantees that the U.S government will approve of a bailout plan any time soon.

Democrats are working on a $2.2 trillion bailout plan, which is higher than what Republicans are likely to agree too. Coupled with the fact that the U.S is going into an election in weeks, chances of a deal appear slimmer. Despite the subdued outlook for the day, there are stocks that are doing quite well in the day. Some of the top performers this morning are as below:

CBAK Energy Technology Inc [NASDAQ: CBAT]

CBAK Energy Technology Inc is a top performer pre-market and is up by over 100%. This is largely a price action move and comes days after the company announced that it had won the bid for the Haier project and also grown its presence in the smart home market.  Commenting on these developments, CEO Yunfei Li stated that the company had extensive experience in the making of Lithium-Ion batteries and that they were leveraging it to make a breakthrough in the appliance sector.

Great Elm Capital Group Inc [NASDAQ: GEC]

Great Elm Capital Group Inc is another top performer pre-market and is up by over 20%.  This too is largely momentum-driven and comes a week after the company released strong quarterly and full-year results for 2020. The company reported that in Q4 of 2020, the company’s revenues rose by 7.9% despite tough times occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.

TAT Technologies Ltd [NASDAQ: TATT]

TAT is big gainer pre-market and is up by over 50%. This is a momentum-based price action move, as there is no major stock-related news this morning.