Thursday March 27, 12:58 PM
U.S. stock futures leap after jobless claims decline, GDP data
NEW YORK (Thomson Financial) - U.S. stock futures accelerated to the upside Thursday after data showing a bigger-than-expected drop in weekly jobless claims, and following an in line reading on final fourth-quarter economic growth.
S&P 500 futures were up 10.30 points at 1,345.70 and Nasdaq 100 (NASDAQ: news) futures rallied 4.75 points to 1,815.00.
Just prior to the release of the data, S&P 500 futures were trading around 1,339.50 and Nasdaq 100 futures were down slightly at around 1,809.
The Dow industrials 'Diamonds' ETF (DIA) was last up 79c, or 0.6%, at $124.71 in premarket trading, compared with a pre-data price of around $124.08.
The U.S. Labor Department said earlier that new claims for unemployment insurance fell by 9,000 to 366,000 during the week ending March 22, compared with the median estimate of economists surveyed by IFR Markets of 370,000.
Continuing claims fell 5,000 to 2,845 million, below economist forecasts of 2.870 million.
At the same time, the Commerce Department said its final reading on fourth-quarter gross domestic product was for growth of 0.6%, in line with its previous estimate and with economist projections.
Tomi Kilgore
tk1
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