Washington D.C. may be boarded up in anticipation of the arrival of Hurricane Isabel but the U.S. government is still pumping out several key economic reports today.

U.S. initial jobless claims came in at 399,000. That’s a drop from last week’s 422,000 and since the extent of the drop was unexpected by marketwatchers, it should boost Wall Street futures, which have been lacklustre through most of the pre-equity trading.

At 10:00 ET the U.S. leading economic indicators report is due out. The “Philly Fed” report — the U.S. Federal Reserve’s survey of manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia area — will be released at noon. Both should have an impact on the markets.

Here at home, Statistics Canada is reporting that foreign investors reduced their holdings of Canadian securities by $2.6 billion in July. However, this was only their second reduction of 2003, says StatsCan. Foreign investors divested $4.5 billion of debt instruments, while making the largest acquisition of Canadian equities in 13 months, at $1.9 billion. Meanwhile, Canadian investors acquired $3 billion of foreign securities, mainly foreign bonds, their largest investment in eight months.

In the U.S. the biggest news – or, rather, gossip – is all about the resignation of New York Stock Exchange chairman Dick Grasso, late Wednesday. He was pretty much driven out by outrage over his US$139.5 million deferred compensation package.

This left the NYSE seeking a new leader under intense scrutiny from its broker members, regulators, politicians and critical investors, who want sweeping changes at the world’s biggest stock market.

In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei average edged up 43.21 points to 11,033.32, finishing above the 11,000 level for the first time since June 13, 2002. The index turned positive due to a report that electronics maker Fujitsu has won network contracts worth US$1.55 billion from the British government. In Hong Kong prices fell as investors dumped stock of Chinese state-owned companies. The Hang Seng fell 70.83 points to 11,069.22.

In Europe at midday, the FTSE 100 stock index is up just 1.6 points to 4,294.6. Frankfurt’s DAX is up 0.6%, while the Paris CAC-40 is down 0.2%.

North American stock markets closed down slightly on Wednesday. Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index slid 11.79 points at 7,613.58. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 21.69 points to 9,545.65. The Nasdaq edged down 4.15 to 1,883.10, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 3.35 to 1,025.97.