October 25, 2012-Stocks Look to Advance on Upbeat China and Britain Economic Data

With traders reacting to better than expected economic data, stocks may move back to the upside in early trading on Thursday. The major index futures are currently pointing to a higher open for the markets, with the Dow futures up by 59 points. The early strength comes as the latest batch of economic data has offset some of the recent concerns about the global economic outlook. A report released by the U.K. Office for National Statistics showed that the U.K. economy grew by a better than expected rate of 1 percent in the third quarter, boosted by the London Olympics. The U.S. Labor Department also released a report showing a bigger than expected drop by initial jobless claims in the week ended October 20th. The report showed that initial jobless claims dropped to 369,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 392,000. Economists had been expecting jobless claims to fall to 372,000 from the 388,000 originally reported for the previous week.