Initial jobless claims for the week ending on October 23 dropped, declining 21,000 from the previous week's revised measurement of 455,000. That put the number of applications at the lowest level it's seen in three months, which is a positive sign for the labor market as a whole.
"Certainly these are encouraging numbers," Brian Jones, an economist at Societe Generale SA in New York. He wasn't entirely optimistic, though, saying, "given other labor-market readings you want to be hesitant about saying we've turned the corner."
The news was enough to push up stock index futures ahead of the open – Dow Jones Industrial Average index futures rose 46 points to 11,071, while S&P 500 index futures gained 6.6 points to 1,185.40 at 9:14 a.m. EST.
Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 7.5 points to 2,123.25.
European equities futures also gained, as Euro-zone companies provided good earnings results that exceeded analysts' guesses. FTSE 100 index futures jumped 53 points to 5,687.5, while German DAX index futures rose 57.5 points to 6,637.50.
In Japan, Nikkei 225 index futures ticked up 10 points to 9,380.
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