Two days after Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and Challenger, Gray & Christmas offered upbeat data on the labor market in April, the U.S. Department of Labor reported weekly unemployment claims dropped 7,000 last week to 444,000, just below the 445,000 expected.
And Monster Worldwide (MWW) reported its labor index jumped 8 points in April to 120, the third month of gains. The annualized increase of 11% foam the prior year was the largest jump since July of 2007.
Stock futures are taking this data and falling slightly, with the Dow Industrials futures down 4 points at 10,830, and the S&P 500 futures down 3 points at 1,160.90.
Rounding out somewhat benign data, European Central Bank officials held rates unchanged, they said this morning, at 1% for the 12th month in a row, as economists expected.
ECB president Jean Claude Trichet said energy prices were the biggest threat of inflation, but that overall inflation is expected to be “moderate” for some time.
No help for the Euro, which continues to trade lower on yesterday’s riots in Greece over austerity measures. The Euro is currently at $1.2731 this morning, down from last night’s closing cross of $1.2821.
Oil futures were again in retreat, with June contracts on light sweet crude oil down 70 cents at $79.27.
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