With unemployment still at a severe high, a majority of states have drained their jobless benefit funds, forcing them to borrow billions from the federal government to help out-of-work Americans.A total of 33 states and the Virgin Islands have depleted their funds and borrowed more than $38.7 billion to provide a safety net, according to a report released Thursday by the National Employment Law Pr

The major stock market indices added to their gains this week – obtaining comfort from the Fed’s policy statement that the “juice” was not about to be removed anytime soon – and hit 18-month highs before closing down on Friday as “quadruple witching day” in the US weighed on sentiment.

Shrugging off some lingering reminders of the credit crisis and recession, investors last week marked the one-year anniversary of the bear market low by pushing many benchmark equity indices to cycle highs.