Fresh economic data painted a poor picture of U.S. employment and business activity Thursday morning.
The Labor Department reported that jobless claims rose by 1,000 to 349,000 last week; economists were expecting claims to drop to 340,000.
Meanwhile, orders for durable goods, or big-ticket items, ticked up a mere 0.1% in November, far worse than expectations for a 2.2% increase. The results seemed to provide further evidence that corporate spending and employment is slowing in the wake of the mortgage meltdown.
Investors were also eagerly awaiting the Conference Board’s consumer confidence report, due out at at 10 a.m. The report is expected to show that confidence edged down just slightly in December. With a weak housing market and soaring fuel prices, consumers likely pulled back this holiday shopping season.
Stock futures fell and gold futures rose Thursday morning following reports that Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto had been killed by a suicide attacker at a rally.
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