Wall Street futures have lost some of their early gains after disappointing weekly US jobs figures.
Initial claims for unemployment benefit were 386,000 last week, compared to expectations of a lower figure of around 370,000. That was 2,000 lower than the previous week, but the comparison is distorted by the fact that the previous week's figure was revised up from 388,000 from 380,000. Annalisa Piazza at Newedge Strategy said:
Last week's uptick is expected to be just a temporary blip due to the start of the new quarter. However, today's data confirms our view that it will take a few weeks to see claims falling back to their recent four year low.
Ahead of the news, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was forecast to open around 49 points higher but that has since fallen to a 17 point gain.
