Yesterday, notes Mr Secker, the FTSE closed up 30 points with support being gained from 4,300. The index closed at 4,362 and made an attempt to regain the losses from Wednesday. It will be interesting to see what the index does today, the last day of the week. The Dow Jones industrial average ended yesterday up 46 points, but lagged gains by the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq composite index. Stocks rose on Thursday after three mostly down days as traders bought beaten-down financial and technology stocks.  Buying was subdued after a worse-than-expected weekly unemployment report added to concerns that the economic recovery might not come as quickly as hoped. The market is down sharply this week as investors worry that the optimism that sparked a huge rally might have been premature.  The S&P 500 index is still 32 percent above the 12-year low it hit in early March. In Forex-related news yesterday US Unemployment Claims came in worse than expected as did NZ Retail Sales m/m. We have a number of data releases due today; EUR Flash GDP q/q, US Core CPI m/m and, most importantly US TIC Long-Term Purchases which measures the level of net investment in US Government securities and therefore has an impact on the USD.

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