Thursday Morning Cheat Sheet: 3 Stories Moving Markets

The markets were mixed in Asia on Thursday. The Nikkei climbed 1.16 percent after the lower house approved Haruhiko Kuroda as the next governor of the Bank of Japan. Kuroda is expected to take bold stances on monetary policy in order to stimulate the struggling Japanese economy, and real-estate stocks in particular rebounded on the news. The Hang Seng edged up 0.28 percent, while the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.18 percent, led by major mining companies as the price of commodities such as iron ore dropped.

European stocks advanced toward post-recession highs on Thursday as top policymakers headed into a two-day meeting in Brussels. Finance ministers are expected to address possible changes to unpopular austerity measures, as well as a bailout package for Cyprus. At about mid-day, European stocks were largely trading in the green. Germany’s DAX was up 1.00 percent, London’s FTSE was up 0.38 percent, and the STOXX 50 index was up 1.23 percent.

U.S. futures at 8:35 a.m.: DJIA: +0.15%, S&P 500: +0.28%, NASDAQ: +0.42%.

Here are three stories to keep an eye on:

1) Seasonally-adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 2.9 percent for the week ended March 9, according to data released Thursday morning by the U.S. Department of Labor. The four-week moving average declined by 2,750 to 346,750. The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs was 5,619,860 as of the week ended February 23, which is the most-recent data supplied. This is an increase of 217,967 from the previous week, but nearly 2 million fewer than in the year-ago period.