A raft of US data has just been released and it seems reasonably positive on the whole, with weekly jobless numbers and New York manufacturing both beating expectations.
New claims for unemployment benefit fell to 351,000 last week, compared to expectations of around 356,000 and the previous week's 365,000 (which was in turn revised upwards from 362,000.) The four week moving average was steady at 355,750.
The Empire general business conditions index rose to 20.21 in March, up from 19.53 in February and better than forecasts of a decline to 17.5. But new orders slipped from 9.73 to 6.84 and prices paid jumped to their highest level since June 2011.
