U.S. stocks and exchange traded funds (ETFs) snapped their losing streak to jump more firmly into positive territory on positive economic news about retail and the latest unemployment figures.
Investors are optimistic that the unemployment woes of the nation are finally being curtailed on a better-than-expected jobless report. The Labor Department reported that the number of newly laid-off Americans filing unemployment claims fell to a seasonally adjusted 601,000, well below analysts’ expectations of 615,000. Although this news is promising, the number of people claiming unemployment benefits continues to creep up and has set records for 19 weeks in a row, to more than 6.8 million.

There is more positive economic data from the retail sector. The Commerce Department reported that retail sales rose for the first time in the last three months. Sales increased by 0.5% last month and was the largest increase since sales rose 1.7% in January, as demand in auto dealerships and gas stations jumped offsetting the weakness at department stores, states Christopher S. Rugaber of the Associated Press. The news sent the Retail HOLDRs (RTH) up nearly 0.2% in morning trading.

The number of U.S. foreclosures declined in May from April.  According to California based Realty Trac, foreclosure filings dropped by 6% in May.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t necessarily mean that we are in the clear.  There were still more than 321,000 households that received at least one foreclosure notice in May, an 18% increase from the prior year.  The SPDR S&P Homebuilders (XHB) dropped nearly 1.5% in morning trading.

Black gold continues to be a hot commodity.  The volatile commodity climbed north of $72/barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.  The price of crude oil has more than doubled over the last four months on optimism that an economic recovery is in the near future and higher forecasts for demand of the commodity.  In fact, the International Energy Agency states that expected global demand for crude is up 120,000 barrels per day from a previous forecast and now expects non-OPEC oil production of 170,000 barrels a day more than it previously estimated.  The news sent the US Oil Fund (USO) up 1.7% in intraday trading.

All three major indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq gained nearly 1% in morning trading.

For more recent stories we’ve done on oil, visit our oil category.

Tags: Commodity ETFs, Dow Jones Industrial Average, Energy, Homebuilders, NASDAQ, Oil, Real Estate, Retail, RTH, S&P 500, Sector ETFs, USO, XHB