FOX: Stocks point lower after weekly jobless claims
Wall Street is pointing lower as investors show little reaction to a drop in weekly unemployment claims.
The Labor Department said Thursday initial claims for jobless benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 631,000 last week from a revised figure of 643,000 a week earlier. That was essentially in line with analysts' expectations of 630,000.
Traders have been worried that the economy might not recover as quickly as had been hoped when the market began rocketing off of 12-year lows in early March.
Dow Jones industrial average futures is off 49 to 8,346, about where they had been ahead of the report. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures are down 4.60 to 895.30, while Nasdaq 100 index futures is off 7 to 1,385.50.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street signaled stocks would open lower Thursday ahead of a weekly reading on unemployment claims.
Stock futures slumped as traders worried that the economy might not recover as quickly as had been hoped when the market began rocketing off of 12-year lows in early March. On Wednesday, stocks posted moderate losses after the Federal Reserve said that the nation's economy was likely to shrink by more than expected this year.
Investors also grew nervous following a warning from credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's that Britain may have its rating cut because of rising debt levels. S&P affirmed the country's actual ratings but it lowered its outlook to "negative" from "stable" because of enormous borrowing aimed at battling the recession and banking crisis.
Traders are uneasy because even with governments pumping huge amounts of money into economies around the world there are still questions about how soon an economic rebound might take hold. In the U.S., home prices are still sliding and unemployment remains at a 25-year high of 8.9 percent.
The government's weekly snapshot on jobs have taken on an added significance as investors search for any signs that the rise in unemployment is losing steam. Job losses not only damp consumer spending but also put loans on everything from homes to credit cards at risk.
Economists expect the latest government data will show that initial claims for jobless benefits remain elevated because of layoffs in the auto industry.
The Labor Department's tally of new jobless claims is expected to drop to a seasonally adjusted 630,000 from the previous week's 637,000, according to a survey of Wall Street economists by Thomson Reuters. Continuing claims are forecast to rise to 6.65 million from 6.56 million. That would be the highest total in records dating to 1967 and a 16th straight record.
The data are due at 8:30 a.m. EDT.
Ahead of the report, Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 51, or 0.6 percent, to 8,344. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 5.90, or 0.7 percent, to 894.00, while Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 5.25, or 0.4 percent, to 1,387.25.
Stocks fell Tuesday and Wednesday, but the S&P 500 index is still up 33.5 percent since tumbling to a 12-year low on March 9. The index is essentially flat for the year.
Other economic reports are also due. Economists say the Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators, which is designed to forecast economic activity in the next three to six months, is likely to rise have risen in April after not increasing for nine straight months.
The report is scheduled for release at 10 a.m.
Also at 10 a.m., the Philadelphia Federal Reserve is scheduled to release a report on regional manufacturing.
In other trading, bond prices rose. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.18 percent from 3.19 percent late Wednesday.
The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.
Light, sweet crude fell $1.45 to $60.59 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.2 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.9 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 1.6 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 1.6 percent.
