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Fewer people sought unemployment benefits last week, adding to signs that the job market is strengthening.

Applications for unemployment aid dropped 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 351,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That matches a four-year low reached last month. The four-week average, which smooths fluctuations, was unchanged at 355,750. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2109160,00.html

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Stocks finished higher Thursday, with the S&P 500 topping the 1,400 mark for the first time in nearly four years, as investors considered a batch of better-than-expected economic news.

Reports showed that jobless claims are at their lowest level in four years, manufacturing activity continues to expand and inflation remains tame.

All three major indexes {shouldn't that be "indeces"? Yeah--"The plural of the noun index should always be indices. This handily distinguishes it from the present tense of the verb index, which can only be indexes." What ever happened to literacy in reporting? Oh well, back to) are on track to post their best weekly gains since mid-January. The Dow has climbed more than 2.5% this week. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have risen about 2.3%. http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/15/markets/stocks/index.htm?source=cnn_bi
n wonder the Republican candidates have been focusing on "social issues". Can't beat Obama up on jobless numbers, economic indicators, stock market, and it's laughable to try and beat him up on international affairs, given bin Laden having been taken out, not to mention al-Awlaki and 20 other terrorists (see http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/the-terrorist-notches-on-
obamas-belt/). Doesn't leave much.

One can, of course, claim that as President one will bring gas back down to $2.50 a gallon, but then one ends up being laughed at as if one had claimed we'd have a base on the moon...

What gets me tho' is how fickle the American people are. Obama had just hit a 50% approval rating; gas prices go up (something NO President has real control over), and it's down to 41%. Despite the lies by the right, we're EXPORTING more oil than in times past, Obama has opened up TONS of drilling, and done most everything a Prez can do to bring the price down. Yet they blame him. Go figger!