Wall Street futures are positive this morning after a better-than-expected report on U.S. initial jobless claims, which dropped 22,000 last week.

The number of workers filing first-time applications for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, says the U.S. Labor Department. Initial jobless claims dropped to 353,000, the lowest level since Nov. 1. The four-week average dropped to 2,250 to 361,750. Economists had expected a more modest decline of 8,000 claims.

The downside of U.S. jobs news is that continuing claims rose by 28,000 to 3,339,000, with the unemployment rate for workers with unemployment insurance remained at 2.6%.

Meanwhile the U.S. dollar continues to fall against the euro, which hit a new all-time high of US$1.2423 in a rise based on concerns about the U.S. budget and trade deficits.

Here at home, Statistics Canada is reporting that foreign investors increased their holdings of Canadian securities by $2.3 billion in October, including debt securities and stocks. Meanwhile, Canadian investors resumed their purchases of foreign stocks but continued to sell foreign bonds.

The Canadian securities acquired by foreign investors consisted of $1.5 billion of debt instruments, mainly bonds, and $0.8 billion of stocks. October’s buying of bonds and short-term paper represented a halt to the selling of recent months; the foreign buying of equities was a continuation of what has occurred for most of 2003.

The next item of data that could affect the markets is the U.S. leading indicator to be released at 10:00 ET.

In London at midday, the FTSE 100 index is up 21.8 points to 4,376 at midday in London. The bourses in Frankfurt and Paris are showing slight gains.

In Asia, Thursday trading closed slightly higher after recent declines. Tokyo’s Nikkei edged up 11.36 points to 10,104.00. Investors bought shares in automakers, telecoms and other sectors beaten down in previous sessions. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed up 47.13 at 12,240.25.

On Wednesday, the Toronto stock market’s benchmark index closed above 8,000 on Wednesday for the first time since June 2001. The S&P/TSX composite index rose 52.92 points to 8,040.17, led by the energy sector due to the rise in crude oil prices.

The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 15.70 at 10,145.26. The Nasdaq slid 2.96 points to 1,921.33. The S&P 500 added a mere 1.35 at 1,076.48.