Weekly jobless claims fall to lowest level since April
By Kate Gibson and Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock-index futures turned higher Thursday after the government said U.S. jobless claims fell to a seven-month low last week, pulling some market attention from Europe.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJ1Z +0.03% rose 41 points to 11,885 and those on the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index SP1Z +0.22% gained 3.30 points to 1,234.3.
Nasdaq 100 futures ND1Z +0.08% rose 5.75 points to 2,319.5.
In Europe, stock markets fell, with the Stoxx 600 index XX:SXXP -1.03% down 0.7% in afternoon trade. The Spanish and French governments conducted debt auctions and saw their borrowing costs rise. Spain’s 10-year government-bond yields surged to euro-era highs.
Commodity prices were also under pressure.
Crude-oil futures for January delivery, the most active contract, dropped $1.60 to $101 a barrel. Gold for December delivery GC1Z -1.42% fell $27.90 to $1,746.40 an ounce.
The euro EURUSD +0.48% edged up to $1.3524. The dollar index DXY -0.50% , which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, fell to 77.952.
The Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook Survey for November is due at 10 a.m. Eastern.
The blue-chip Dow index DJIA -1.58% slumped nearly 200 points on Wednesday after Fitch Ratings warned that the credit outlook for U.S. banks could worsen unless the euro-zone debt crisis is resolved in a timely and orderly manner.
