In the week ending April 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance was 294,000, an increase of 12,000 from the previous week’s revised level, the Labor Department reported. The four-week moving average was 282,750, an increase of 250 from the previous week’s revised average.

The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is 3.67%, up from 3.66% one week ago, according to Freddie Mac. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage is 2.94%, up from 2.93%.

The Census Bureau announced that privately-owned housing starts in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 926,000. This is 2.0% above the revised February estimate of 908,000, but is 2.5% below the March 2014 rate of 950,000. Single-family housing starts in March were at a rate of 618,000; this is 4.4% above the revised February figure of 592,000. The March rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 287,000.

Thursday, the Dow was down 6.84 points (0.04%) at 18,105.77, the NASDAQ slipped 3.23 points (0.06%) to 5,007.79, and the S&P 500 decreased by 1.64 (0.08%) to 2,104.99. The Russell 2000 lost 2.45 points (0.19%) to finish at 1,272.90, and the Wilshire 5000 closed 14.17 points (0.06%) lower at 22,324.91.

On the NYSE, 3.2 billion shares traded, with 1.3 declining issues for every advancing issue. On the NASDAQ, 2.8 billion shares changed hands, with a slight lead for decliners.

The price of the 10-year Treasury note was unchanged, with its yield at 1.889%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond decreased 23/32, bringing its yield up to 2.576%.

ON THIS DATE: In 1521, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. In 1629, horses were first imported into the colonies by the American Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1790, American statesman, printer, scientist, and writer Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia at age 84. In 1861, Virginia became the eighth state to secede from the Union. In 1961, the Bay of Pigs invasion began when a CIA-financed and -trained group of Cuban refugees landed in Cuba and attempted to topple the communist government of Fidel Castro. The attack was a failure. In 1964, the Ford Mustang, a two-seat, mid-engine sports car, was officially unveiled by Henry Ford II at the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York. In 1969, in Los Angeles, Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of assassinating U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy. In 1970, with the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon, safely returned to Earth. In 1993, a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted two former police officers of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King. Two other officers were acquitted.

And now it’s time for FRIDAY FILES!

In Fremont, Ohio, a man told police he was using spray paint and a lighter to kill a mouse when he accidentally set fire to his garage. But, before that, he told them he saw flames in boxes he had recently mounted on the back of stereo speakers and that he tried to kick the fire out, but the fire spread and became worse. He then told them he went to the garage to smoke and noticed black smoke filling the garage, then ran to get a pan of water but returned to find the fire out of control. According to the News-Messenger, the fire was similar to another blaze that started in the garage in 2012. The cause of that blaze was never determined. The man has been charged with one felony count each of arson and aggravated arson.

In Lee County, Georgia, a 54-year-old man was outside his house when he fired his 9 mm pistol at an armadillo. The bullet killed the animal, but also ricocheted off of it, hit a fence, went through the back door of his mother-in-law’s mobile home, through a recliner she was sitting in, and into her back, according to the local FOX news station. The man was about 100 yards away from his mother-in-law’s home at the time, and the 74-year-old woman was fortunately not severely injured.

In Eastport, New York, someone told a man who discovered bed bugs in his rental car that if he saturated them with alco.hol it would kill them. So, he poured alco.hol over the bugs in the vehicle. However, he then sat in the car and lit a cig.arette, which set the car ablaze. According to the Associated Press, the man fled the vehicle but not before suffering first- and second-degree burns. Police said two other cars were damaged from the heat of the fire.

In Riverdale, New Jersey, a man woke up to find his car missing from his driveway. The man called police to report the car stolen, but while on the phone, his “friend” called to say he had taken the man’s car in order to make a court appearance and was bringing the car back. As the friend returned from the court hearing concerning drug charges, police were there to meet him and discovered a hypod.ermic needle, crack pi.pe, drug parap.hernalia and an open bottle of whis.key, NJ Advance Media reported. Police also discovered the friend had a suspended driver’s license and shouldn’t have been driving in the first place.

News from PLANSPONSOR.com

Copyright © Asset International, Inc., 2015.