Market Update Report 4/10/2014

The KUIK Market Update for Thursday, April 10:
Markets are down
Index Direction Change Units Last Time Change
Dow Down                    (40) points           16,396 7:57 AM
S&P500 Down -0.4% percent             1,865            (7.48)
Nasdaq Composite Down -1.2% percent             4,135           (48.98)
30 Year Treasury Down                      (2) Basis Points               3.54 Annual Yield
Jobless claims have hit  seven year low. The Labor Department reports that new applications for unemployment benefits fell by 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 300,000 in the week ended April 5.  That’s the lowest level since May 2007, six months before the Great Recession began and a bigger drop than economists expected. They were looking for 320,000.  Initial claims are now almost 14% lower compared to one year ago and they are down 21% compared to the same week two years earlier.  That is helped the market.
Production by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries OPEC, which supplies more than a third of the oil consumed globally each day, fell by over half a million barrels a day last month to 29.6 million barrels a day, accoridng to its monthly report. A steep drop in Iraq’s oil output of nearly 300,000 barrels a day led the decline, though there was also substantial downturns in Angola, Libya and Saudi Arabia in March.
Gold prices moved higher after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s most recent meeting were released and were  less hawkish than investors expected.  June gold is up 1%, to $1,318.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Merc.
Serving the West Side first, I am Bill Roller of BR Capital for AM 1360 KUIK.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jobless-claims-fall-to-nearly-seven-year-low-2014-04-10-81035619
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/opec-output-drops-lowers-2014-forecast-for-its-oil-2014-04-10?dist=lcountdown
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gold-jumps-1-after-dovish-fed-minutes-2014-04-10?dist=markets
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