1. The dollar remained broadly higher against a basket of other major currencies on Thursday, even after data showed that U.S. jobless claims rose to their highest level since February last week as markets were jittery ahead of fresh reform proposals from Greece.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported on Thursday that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending July 4 increased by 15,000 to 297,000 from the previous week’s total of 282,000. Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to fall by 7,000 to 275,000 last week.
2. U.S. stocks were sharply higher at the open on Thursday as trading returned to normal at the New York Stock Exchange, a day after the exchange suspended operations for almost four hours due to a technical glitch.
All 10 major S&P 500 sectors rose as Beijing's efforts to halt a rout in Chinese stocks finally bore fruit and the U.S. Federal Reserve's June meeting minutes indicated that a rate hike might be pushed back.
U.S. stocks had fallen sharply on Wednesday as market turmoil in China, a rout in commodity prices, the Greek crisis and a major outage on the New York Stock Exchange spooked investors.
3. Natural gas futures extended losses to hit a four-week low on Thursday, after data showed that U.S. natural gas supplies rose more than expected last week.
Natural gas for delivery in August hit a session low of $2.648 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the weakest level since June 8, before trading at $2.652 during U.S. morning hours, down 3.4 cents, or 1.25%. Prices were at around $2.689 prior to the release of the supply data.
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