Economic indicators rise

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Thursday, May 20, 2004 | 9:26 a.m.

NEW YORK -- The index of leading economic indicators rose 0.1 percent in April and the average number of jobless claims in the past four weeks fell to the lowest since November 2000, supporting forecasts that the U.S. economy will keeping expanding in this year's second half.

The New York-based Conference Board also today revised up its leading-indicators index from March to 0.8 percent, the biggest jump since May.

The four-week average of the number of Americans filing initial claims for unemployment insurance declined to 333,500 from 336,250, the Labor Department said in Washington.

Initial claims last week rose to 345,000 from a revised 333,000. Economists had expected the number of claims to fall to 328,000, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.