U.S. markets were bolstered by labor and retail news Thursday.

The Department of Labor said 18,000 fewer unemployment insurance claims were filed during the week ending last Saturday. Chain stores reported their best month since January with retail giant Wal-Mart reporting its best month since November.

In early afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 47.88 points or 0.37 percent to 12,862.23. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 2.73 or 0.2 percent to 1,395.30. The Nasdaq composite index of tech-dominated stock rose 11.10 or 0.46 percent to 2,449.59.

The 10-year treasury note gained 10/32 to yield 3.833percent.

The dollar fell. The euro traded at $1.5413 from Wednesday's $1.5406, while the dollar traded at 103.84 yen from Wednesday's 104.77 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei index fell 159.22 points to 13,943.26, off 1.13 percent.

In London, the FTSE 100 index gained 3.20 points to 6,264.20, up 0.5 percent.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International


Publication date: 08 May 2008   

Source: UPI-1-20080508-12242100-bc-us-markets-1stld.xml

Archive