Sports and Business News: June 4th

NBA Championship Odds Set

Now that the NBA has plans in place to resume their season on July 31st in Orlando, Florida, we now have updated odds on which team will win the NBA Championship.

LeBron James and the Lakers are tied as the current favorites with the Milwaukee Bucks at +250. Meaning for every $100 you bet, you’ll win back an additional $250 if they win. The Clippers are at +333, Rockets at +1,200, and the Boston Celtics round out the top five at +2,000. The Washington Wizards, Sacramento Kings, Phoenix Suns, and Orlando Magic are all at the bottom of the list with 250-to-1 odds (+25,000).

NFL Coaches Permitted Back at Facilities 

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo to all 32 teams announcing coaching staffs can start returning to team facilities on June 5th. Players, however, are not yet allowed to return.

Unlike the NBA, NHL, MLB and college sports who all had to cancel or postpone their seasons due to the coronavirus, the NFL has been left virtually unscathed.

They had to host the NFL Draft remotely, with coaches and broadcasters appearing from their homes. Mini-camps were also canceled. But the NFL is the only professional sport in America that has not been forced to cancel actual games.

With the season scheduled to start in September and training camp in mid-July, this is another sign that football will be back as planned in 2020.

Business Update

There are 6.5 million cases of the coronavirus worldwide, with over 387,000 deaths. There are 1.8 million cases in the U.S., with over 107,000 deaths. Brazil has 584,000 cases and 32,000 deaths. 

The Labor Department said 1.877 million Americans filed jobless claims for the week ending on May 30. That number is down from the 2.126 million claims for the week earlier, as states continued to slowly reopen after more than two-and-a-half months of being shuttered amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

Economists polled by FactSet had been expecting 1.8 million claims up to last Saturday. More than 45 million applications for unemployment benefits have been submitted since the coronavirus pandemic began in March. Government records show that kind of number has never before seen in history, including during the Great Depression. Continuing claims, which is the number of people not just filing but staying on unemployment benefits, came in at 21.487 million for the week ended May 16. The continuing claims numbers are reported with a one-week lag but are considered a better gauge of the labor market.