Quick Overview

• Japans machinery orders rose 3.9 percent.

• U.S. Initial jobless claims fell by 10,000 last week, following the previous week’s gain to a 14-month high, the Labor Department said Thursday.
  
  

• The European Central Bank raised its interest rate from 3.50% to 3.75%.
  The European Central Bank expects real GDP growth of 2.5% in 2007 and 2.4% in 2008.
  

• The Bank of England left its interest rate unchanged at 5.25%.
  
  

• Available power reserve margins may fall below required levels in four to six U.S. regions by 2009, Merrill Lynch analyst Elizabeth Parrella wrote in a recent research report.