(As of 7:32 am pacific)
Stocks open slightly down as US jobless claims drop ahead
of estimates. According to the Labor
Dept., US jobless claims declined by 27,000 to 365,000 last week. Claims from 2 weeks ago were revised up to
392,000 from 388,000. Economists had
expected jobless claims to drop to 378,000.
The Labor Dept. also reported on Thursday that productivity of US
businesses and workers dropped 0.5% for the first quarter. Economists estimated a decline of 1.0%. The manufacturing sector continued to show
signs of improvement, jumping 5.9% in the first quarter. Most of the decline in productivity came
outside the manufacturing sector. Planned
jobs cuts were up 7% in April to 40,559 according to outplacement firm
Challenger, Gray & Christmas. April’s
reading was 11.2% higher than this time last year. In Europe, stocks retreated after ECB
President Mario Draghi’s press conference Thursday. Draghi said economic outlook for the euro-area
remains subject to downside risk pointing to ongoing tensions in sovereign debt
markets. He also said that demand for
credit remains weak but is confident that the LTRO program would have a
positive impact on lending once liquidity feeds through the system. The ECB left its key lending rate at 1% and
said its stance on monetary policy remains “accommodative.” Asian stocks fell Thursday as banks weighed
on the Hong Kong markets. Oil prices
dropped sharply, down 1.85% to 103.26 and gold was down 1.03% to 1637. The US dollar was mixed and the 10 yr.
treasury yield drifted up slightly to 1.94%.
30 yr. mortgage rates remained at all time record lows of 3.82%. The VIX was up 1.54% to 17.14.
