The U.S. Government released some encouraging economic news on Thursday.
A report on manufacturing in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area showed the key sector growing at the fastest rate in seven years. It also showed manufacturers plan to hire the largest number of workers in two decades.
Economists and investors watch the Philadelphia factory report for clues about the performance of total U.S. manufacturing.
A separate report showed the number of Americans applying for unemployment compensation dropping to its lowest level in eight months.
Officials also said consumer prices rose a modest three-tenths of one percent in September. Economists say excluding volatile energy and food prices, the closely-watched "core rate" of inflation was up at a 1.2 percent annual rate.
Experts credit increased global competition for holding price increases to their lowest level in decades.
The inflation rate is so low that top U.S. Federal Reserve officials recently said they remain concerned about de-flation, which could damage the economy with wide-spread falling prices.
Meantime, a mixed bag of earnings reports prompted mixed results for U.S. share prices. Coke, the world's largest soft drink maker, reported a 12 percent boost in profits from a year ago, but fell short of analysts' expectations. Ford Motor Company lost money in the just-finished quarter, but substantially less than analysts expected. And Nokia, the world's largest mobil phone maker reported a one-third increase in quarterly earnings.
Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.
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