• The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week rebounded from a near 44-year low, but continued to point to a tightening labor market.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 243,000 for the week ended March 4, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were unrevised at 223,000, the lowest level since March 1973.
It was the 105th straight week that claims remained below 300,000, a threshold associated with a healthy labor market.
• The dollar firmed to six-week highs against the yen on Friday and looked set for a modest weekly gain as investors awaited U.S. job data later in the day that is expected to reinforce expectations of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike next week.
In currencies, the dollar rose to 115.200 yen JPY=, its highest since Jan. 27, as benchmark U.S. Treasury yields rose to three-month highs.
• Centrist Emmanuel Macron saw his position as favorite to win France's presidential election boosted on Thursday in two polls, with one showing him ahead of far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the first round of the two-stage contest.
• Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will host a 68-nation meeting in Washington this month to discuss the next moves by the coalition fighting Islamic State militants, a Trump administration official says.
• Oil fell about 2 percent on Thursday in heavy trade, extending the previous session's slump to prices not seen since an OPEC-led pact to cut production was agreed, as record U.S. crude inventories fed doubts about the effectiveness of the deal to curb a global glut.
Brent crude settled 92 cents, or 1.7 percent, lower at $52.19 a barrel. On Wednesday, the benchmark slumped 5percent, its biggest daily percentage move in a year.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) extended Wednesday's 5.4 percent losses by 2 percent, or $1, to end at $49.28 a barrel, the first time below the $50-mark since mid December.
Reference: Reuters
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