NEW YORK - INVESTORS found more reason to hopeful about the US economy.

WASHINGTON - NEW CLAIMS for US unemployment benefits fell far more than expected in the past week, government data showed on Thursday.

The Labor Department said the number of initial claims in the week ending April 25 fell to a seasonally adjusted 631,000 from the previous week's 645,000, a level revised up by 5,000.

TOKYO - JAPAN'S Fujitsu Ltd said on Thursday that it had lost more than one billion dollars in the year to March as the global economic crisis forces the company to radically revamp its operations.