By Sari Heidenreich

WASHINGTON (MNI) - The future of U.S. exports lies in sending manufactured goods to the "emerging world," General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt said Thursday morning.

By Sari Heidenreich

WASHINGTON (MNI) - The future of U.S. exports lies in sending manufactured goods to the "emerging world," General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt said Thursday morning.

There are a billion consumers in the emerging world who are going to try and work their way up to the middle class in the next decade, Immelt said in a speech at the Export-Import Bank Annual Conference.

By Sari Heidenreich

WASHINGTON (MNI) - The future of U.S. exports lies in sending manufactured goods to the "emerging world," General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt said Thursday morning.

"You have a billion consumers in the emerging world who are going to try and middle class in the next decade," Immelt said in a speech at the Export-Import Bank Annual Conference. "We have counties like Angola that will be one or two billion dollars in revenue this year. Now, when I became CEO of the company, you couldn't even find Angola on a map."

Release for: Fourth Quarter 2009 Source: U.S. Department of Commerce Data seasonally adjusted

Total Revenue ($mln) Type of Business 4Q-09 3Q-09 2Q-09 1Q-09 4Q-08 3Q-08

WASHINGTON (MNI) - The following is the text of statement from Freddie Mac Thursday regarding its survey of weekly mortgage rates:

Freddie Mac today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.95 percent with an average 0.7 point for the week ending March 11, 2010, down from last week when it averaged 4.97 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 5.03 percent.

By Denny Gulino and Brai Esene

WASHINGTON (MNI) - Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits fell 6,000 to 462,000 in March 6 week after seasonal adjustment, according to data released by the U.S. Labor Department Thursday morning.

By Joseph Plocek

WASHINGTON (MNI) - The U.S. January trade balance posted a better-than-expected -$37.3 billion as imports fell in a probably temporary adjustment. As the world economy recovers, markets should brace for deeper U.S. trade gaps ahead.

Imports fell $3.1 billion, more than the $0.5 billion dip in exports, narrowing the trade gap.

By Denny Gulino and Brai Esene

WASHINGTON (MNI) - Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits fell 6,000 to 462,000 in March 6 week after seasonal adjustment, according to data released by the U.S. Labor Department Thursday morning.

The level was just slightly above the 460,000 level expected in a Market News International survey of economists.

A Labor analyst said the week was "uneventful" with no states estimated and the seasonal adjustment factor close, expecting a 1% decline and instead getting a 2.3% of about 11,000 drop.