In the week ending February 23, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance was 225,000, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 217,000, the Labor Department reported. The four-week moving average was 229,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 236,000.

The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is 4.35%, unchanged from one week ago, according to Freddie Mac. The average interest rate for a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage is 3.77%, down from 3.78%.

Thursday, the Dow lost 69.16 points (0.27%) to finish at 25,916.00, the NASDAQ closed 21.98 points (0.29%) lower at 7532.53, and the S&P 500 decreased 7.89 points (0.28%) to 2,784.49. The Russell 2000 was down 5.50 points (0.35%) at 1,575.55, and the Wilshire 5000 fell 87.52 points (0.30%) to 28,903.20.

The price of the 10-year Treasury note was down 10/32, increasing its yield to 2.720%. The price of the 30-year Treasury bond decreased 14/32, bringing its yield up to 3.088%.

ON THIS DATE: In 1692, in Salem Village, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Salem witch trials began. Four women were the first to be charged. In 1781, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation. In 1790, Congress authorized the first U.S. census. In 1803, Ohio became the 17th U.S. state. In 1845, President John Tyler signed the congressional resolution to annex the Republic of Texas. In 1867, Nebraska became the 37th U.S. state. In 1869, postage stamps with scenes were issued for the first time. In 1872, Congress authorized the creation of Yellowstone National Park. It was the world’s first national park. In 1873, E. Remington and Sons of Ilion, New York, began the manufacturing the first practical typewriter. In 1932, the 22-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was kidnapped. In 1937, in Connecticut, the first permanent automobile license plates were issued. In 1941, FM Radio began in Nashville, Tennessee, when station W47NV began operations. In 1947, the International Monetary Fund began operations. In 1949, Joe Louis announced that he was retiring from boxing as world heavyweight boxing champion. In 1954, the United States announced that it had conducted a hydrogen bomb test on the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. In 1954, five congressmen were wounded when four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the gallery of the House of Representatives. In 1961, the Peace Corps was established by President John Kennedy. In 1969, Mickey Mantle announced his retirement from major league baseball. In 1974, seven people were indicted in connection with the Watergate break-in. The charge was conspiring to obstruct justice. In 1995, Yahoo! was incorporated. In 2003, approximately 180,000 personnel from 22 different organizations around the government became part of the Department of Homeland Security. This completed the largest government reorganization since the beginning of the Cold War. In 2003, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was captured by CIA and Pakistani agents near Islamabad. He was the suspected mastermind behind the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

And now it’s time for FRIDAY FILES!

In Middletown, Ohio, a passerby let a woman’s pet pig out of her yard, and police received calls of the pig roaming the streets. Police caught up with the pig and used their cars to prevent her from going too far. The pig’s owner showed up with its favorite treat—Most Stuf Oreos—to get her on a leash and take her back home.

In Sulphur, Louisiana, police received reports of a man dressed in a gorilla costume looking into people’s homes. When officers caught up with him, he ran into a home. The police discovered him hiding under a bed and arrested him. Yes, drugs were involved.

In London, scientists from the University of Bristol and the University of California at Davis who dressed horses in black-and-white striped coats to help determine why zebras have stripes. The researchers found that fewer horseflies landed on the cloaked horses than on the ones without striped coats, suggesting that zebra stripes may offer protection from blood-sucking insects that can spread disease. “This reduced ability to land on the zebra’s coat may be due to stripes disrupting the visual system of the horse flies during their final moments of approach,” says Martin How, a research fellow at the University of Bristol. “Stripes may dazzle flies in some way once they are close enough to see them with their low-resolution eyes.” While there are other applications for the research, How is using the findings for a human application—he says from now on, he’s wearing stripes while riding his bicycle during horse-fly season.

In Huntsville, Alabama, a wait for crab legs in a restaurant ended with two customers being arrested. A police officer told WHNT-TV diners at the Meteor Buffet had been waiting in line for crab legs for more than 10 minutes, and they lost their tempers once the food came out. He says diners were using service tongs like fencing swords and plates were shattering, and a woman was beating a man. That woman was charged with assa.ult, while the man she was beating was charged with disorderly conduct.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!