A rise on Wall Street has restored some calm to markets which had been unnerved by more worries about the Eurozone in general and France in particular.
Weekly claims for US jobless benefits fell 7,000 to 395,000, a four month low and better than the forecast 400,000. It may be a small light in the gloom but the market has reacted positively, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up more than 180 points, with the FTSE 100 now 59.01 points better at 5066.17. The fact that the US trade gap widened unexpectedly from $50.8bn to $53bn in June seems to have been glossed over.
Earlier the market had the jitters again on concerns about the state of French banks, particularly Societe General, although after a 7% rise and a 7% fall during the course of the day, that bank is now pretty much unchanged.
