Rumor On China’s First-Quarter Gross Domestic Product Pushes Dow Upwards – Acadiana Business Index
Rumor moves the market as the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 181 points. Mark Lasseigne has the latest on what's happening on Wall Street on Thursday's Acadiana Business Index.
- Buyers latched on to a rumor that China's first-quarter gross domestic product, scheduled for release at Friday morning, will be better than expected.
- A round of U.S. economic data failed to impress.
- New applications for unemployment claims had their biggest weekly rise in nearly a year and were higher than expected.
- Meanwhile, the U.S. trade deficit registered its largest contraction in nearly three years in February, narrowing more than economists expected.
In corporate news,
- Global shipments of personal computers rose in the first quarter. H-P remained the top PC maker by volume.
- And, Google rose 2.4% ahead of the Internet giant's first-quarter results.
- Light sweet crude settled at $103.64 a barrel.
- And, gold closed at $1,680 an ounce.