This week’s initial jobless claims report from the Department of Labor (see the full report here) showed a total of 23,000 fewer claims for the week ending October 16th. This drop helped reduce the 4-week moving average by 4,250 claims.
The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index had a .3 percent increase for September, which exceeded the .1 percent increase in August, a weak, but positive, sign of economic improvement. Read the full report here.
European markets were up on Thursday while Asian markets were mixed after the National Bureau of Statistics of China released their quarterly growth of gross domestic product results for quarter three 2010. The report showed that China’s GDP growth had slowed for the second consecutive quarter. You can read the full report here.
Early in the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up as many as 106 points from yesterday’s close, but it was unable to sustain that momentum and closed up 38.6 points to 11,146.57. The Nasdaq was up 2.28 points to 2,459.67 and the S&P 500 gained 2.09 to 1,180.26.
Companies releasing quarterly financials today: AT&T Inc (NYSE: T), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN), Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE: LUV), Philip Morris International Inc (NYSE: PM).
