us stock index futures climbed to threeweek highs thursday following a raft of encouraging economic reports including inflation data out of europe and readings on the state of the us labor market and economy on wednesday the dow jones industrial average rose 323 points or 1 to 32718 the sp 500 increased 57 points or 142 to 4028 and the nasdaq composite gained 210 points or 179 to 11926 a riskon mood helped propel us stock futures higher on thursday as a raft of economic data out of the us and europe helped cement expectations that the federal reserve might be finished raising interest rates despite official projections calling for one more hike the absence of any more disheartening banking news also helped investors turn their attention back to the outlook for monetary policy analysts said another day without any unwelcome banking surprises lifted markets as investors headed back towards a riskon approach said richard hunter head of markets at interactive investor the sp 500 index closed above the 4000 mark once again on wednesday an important technical accomplishment that stoked hopes for a further rally among technical analysts that suggests confidence is rebuilding among investors who have been shaken by the rapid unfolding of issues concerning a handful of us and european banks and as expectations for interest rates once again swerved in a new direction said russ mould investment director at aj bell revised data on us gdp growth showed the economy grew slightly more slowly during the final months of 2022 with the annualized growth rate slipping to 26 from 27 seen in the previous estimate slightly weaker exports and consumer spending were to blame according to data released by the bureau of economic analysis meanwhile weekly jobless claims data showed the number of americans applying for new unemployment benefits ticked higher to 198000 during the week ended march 25 up from 191000 during the prior week the reading surpassed the median estimate from economists polled by the wall street journal who had expected 195000 initial claims now traders are looking ahead to the personal consumption expenditures index which is due out friday morning the gauge is the feds preferred measure of consumer price inflation informing the central banks efforts to drive inflation back to its 2 target the next economic test comes on friday as the federal reserves preferred measure of inflation the personal consumption expenditures index is released the general expectation is for the number to have moderated further although still remaining at levels which will suggest that the feds aim of taming inflation has not quite yet been achieved hunter added see ecb quandary as falling energy costs cut headline inflation but core prices still stubbornly high a batch of fed officials are due to make public comments on thursday boston fed president collins and richmond fed president barkin are speaking at 1245 pm with minneapolis fed president kashkari taking the mic at 1 pm after the bell the fed is expected to release its h41 report on bank lending at 430 pm eastern time this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal