US mkts hit new highs for year

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Below is the transcript of a report by CNBC's Hampton Pearson: The markets are hitting new highs for the year on light volumes a day before the Thanksgiving holiday -- the Dow picked up 30 points, the S&P 500 added four points and Nasdaq was up six points.

Gold futures rose to close at record highs above USD 1,190 per ounce on Wednesday, boosted by a sharply lower dollar and the International Monetary Fund sold 10 tonnes of gold to Sri Lanka. Despite new data showing oil supply growth of one million barrels last week, oil prices rose today as the dollar weakened. Oil was up nearly USD 2, settling just below USD 78 per barrel.

New numbers showed jobless claims plummeting to their lowest levels in 14 months in the US, the labour department saying the number of people for first time claims for unemployment benefits fell to 466,000 last week that is far better than the 500,000 claims analyst were predicting. Mean time consumer spending rebounded in October as personal incomes grew modestly, the commerce department saying spending increased 0.7% last month, this as incomes rose 2% and increased for the second straight month.