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ing to a survey by FactSet. It would mark a third straight month of weak job growth. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 8.2 percent.
• The Labor Department will report on June hiring and unemployment at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time Friday.
• Some economists grew more optimistic on Thursday after a pair of reports signaled improvement in the job market last month. The government said fewer people applied for unemployment benefits for the second straight week. And payroll provider ADP said businesses added 176,000 jobs last month, up from its reported gain of 136,000 jobs in May.
• Goldman Sachs responded to the better data by raising its forecast to a gain of 125,000 jobs last month, up from its initial prediction of 75,000.
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• LONDON (AP) -- After a sodden spring, is Britain heading for a summer washout?
• It's lurched from the cold, wet drizzle that dampened the queen's Diamond Jubilee flotilla on the Thames to a sea of mud at the Isle of Wight music festival to frequent delays at Wimbledon, where even the retractable roof couldn't make the event all strawberries and cream.
• And now that the country has recorded its wettest June on record, should Olympic officials be concerned? The games are just 21 days away.

• "Oh, goodness! It's only a bit of British weather," said Charles Powell, a spokesman for the Met office, the national forecaster. "It's naturally variable."
• Britain is an island nation, at the mercy of winds scooping up water from the Atlantic Ocean and breezes bringing in dry air from the European continent. There's a reason trench coats are classic here. This is a country that can have four seasons in an afternoon, where one should never leave home without both an umbrella and sunglasses.
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• SANDUSKY, Ohio (AP) -- Campaigning by bus through swing state Ohio, President Barack Obama cast his re-election bid as a bet on the American worker Thurs

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