South African futures were firmer on Thursday as the JSE closed higher, led by banks and retailers, and the Dow added to recent gains. US markets opened higher with the main indices close to record levels a day after dovish comments from Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen encouraged investors to dive back into the stock market. Yellen’s testimony before congress continued on Thursday. A string of data releases from the US is expected on Friday, while US labour department data on Thursday showed producer prices picked up 0.1% in June from the previous month, the newswire said. The all share closed 0.75% higher at 53‚301 points and the blue-chip top 40 gained 0.82%. General retailers were up 1.61%‚ banks 1.54%‚ financials 1.05%‚ industrials 0.92% and property 0.88%. The gold index lost 1.95%‚ platinums 0.39% and resources 0.06%. At 5.41pm the Dow was up 0.08%, the S&P 500 0.14% and the Nasdaq 0.09%. The FTSE 100 was down 0.05%, while the CAC 40 had gained 0.33% and the DAX 30 0.1...
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