Stocks set for higher opening following employment data, BofA news

Stock futures rising on BofA news, jobs report

Wall Street is looking at a higher open Thursday as the government reported new jobless benefit claims fell unexpectedly for the fifth straight week.

The news helped offset sluggish November sales results from retailers.

Total laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits fell by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 457,000, the lowest total since the week of Sept. 6, 2008, the Labor Department report said. It’s a hopeful sign that the job market is slowly improving.

Wall Street economists expected an increase, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

A separate government report said productivity rose by largest amount in six years in third quarter while labor costs dropped.

The Labor Department said productivity was rising at an annual rate of 8.1 percent in July-September period, the biggest jump since 2003, while unit labor costs were falling at a 2.5 percent rate.

The news signals that inflation is remains under control, but it also suggests that workers’ wages are getting squeezed, raising doubts about the durability of the economic recovery.

Markets are also drawing some confidence from corporate news.

Bank of America Corp. said it will repay its $45 billion in government bailout money.

The bank, which has been struggling to find a new CEO because of the restrictions on executive pay that accompanied the bailout, said late Wednesday it will raise more than $18 billion in capital to help fund the repayment. Bank of America said it expected the move would help it recruit a successor to the retiring Ken Lewis.

Investors are seeing the bank’s move as a sign of its increasing strength and that economic conditions are improving.

Cable company Comcast Corp. has agreed to pay nearly $14 billion in cash and assets to General Electric Co. for a majority stake in NBC Universal, which owns NBC and numerous cable networks and the Universal Pictures studio. Shares of both companies rose in premarket dealings on word of the long-awaited deal.

And Toll Brothers Inc. said it is seeing signs of a turnaround in the housing market, even as the luxury homebuilder lost $111.4 million in the fiscal fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, retailers are reporting sluggish sales results for November as a modestly positive start to the holiday shopping season wasn’t strong enough to offset weak spending the rest of the month.

Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 28, or 0.3 percent, to 10,467. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 3.40, or 0.3 percent, to 1,111.30, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 3.00, or 0.2 percent, to 1,794.50.

In other economic news expected Thursday, the Institute for Supply Management issues its service sector index for November. Economists expect that the index rose to 51.5 in November from 50.6 in October. A reading of 50 or above means the sector is growing. The report is due at 10 a.m. EST.

The stock market struggled but held its ground Wednesday as an upbeat assessment of the economy from the Federal Reserve offset drops in banks and energy companies.

Meanwhile, bond prices fell Thursday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.37 percent from 3.32 percent late Wednesday. The yield on the three-month T-bill, considered one of the safest investments, rose to 0.6 percent from 0.4 percent.

The dollar mostly fell against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 3.8 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.2 percent, while Germany’s DAX index was up 0.4 percent, and France’s CAC-40 was up 0.6. percent.