Oil plunged on Thursday morning, after an unexpected increase in weekly U.S. jobless claims added to a cautious view from the Fed about the U.S. economic recovery to weigh on prices. As of 10:29 a.m. EDT on Thursday, WTI Crude was down 3 percent at $41.64, and Brent Crude was trading down 2.16 percent at $44.41. The surprise increase of U.S. weekly jobless claims to return to above the 1 million mark weighed on oil prices, as well as on the stock market in New York, which opened lower on Thursday. Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the week to August 15 jumped to 1,106,000, up by 135,000 from the previous week’s revised level, the Department of Labor said early on Thursday. The increase in the jobless claims added to concerns about the pace of the economic recovery in the United States, and by extension – of the oil […]