MW: European bourses extend gains after U.S. jobs data
By Aude Lagorce
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European markets extended gains on Thursday in the wake of the latest U.S. weekly jobless claims data. The Stoxx Europe 600 index (ST:SXXP 249.06, +1.52, +0.61%) rallied 1.1% to 250.23. Minutes before the data was published it was up only 0.6%. The UK's FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,141, +31.35, +0.61%) rose 1% to 5160.34, France's CAC-40 [s:fr: px1] index rallied 1.1% to 3488.05 and Germany's DAX-30 (DX:DAX 5,919, +19.14, +0.32%) gained 0.8% to 5,945.21. The number of people filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell 31,000 to 473,000, the first decline in a month, according to data from the U.S. Labor Department issued Thursday.
