Fall in US jobless claims lifts Wall Street and FTSE

A set of reasonable US figures has been seized upon by the markets, sending Wall Street higher in early trading.

Weekly jobless claims fell by 11,000 to 457,000, some 2000 lower than forecasts. So the Dow Jones Industrial Average is currently around 70 points higher, while the FTSE 100 is hovering around its high for the day at 5368.40, up 48.72 points.

Next week sees the monthly manufacturing survey at the start of the week and non-farm payrolls at the end. As RBS says, “That will give us the latest instalment on the ‘double-dip or not’ story and everything else is on the periphery of market attention in these holiday-thinned markets.”