Bob Dudley, an American who is managing the response operation to the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, is poised to get the top job in a move that could soften U.S.-led attacks on the British oil major, sources close to the company say.

Shares in BP, which has lost 40 percent of its market capitalization since the blast that caused the spill, rose 2.5 percent to 408.26 pence by 6:22 a.m. ET.

He has just persuaded Oakland to legalize industrial-sized marijuana farms, touting a study that promised millions in city taxes and hundreds of high-paying union jobs.

The long-struggling city, which has failed spectacularly to capitalize on the high-tech boom, could be the Silicon Valley of pot, Wilcox told the City Council this week before its historic vote to grant four permits for urban, industrial-size marijuana farms.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 37,000 to a seasonally adjusted 464,000 in the week ended July 17, the Labor Department said on Thursday, more than erasing a decline in the prior week.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 445,000 from the previously reported 429,000 in the July 10 week, which was revised slightly down to 427,000 in Thursday’s report.

“These reforms represent the strongest consumer financial protections in history,” Obama will say, according to an advance excerpt of his speech released by the White House.

“These protections will be enforced by a new consumer watchdog with just one job: looking out for people – not big banks, not lenders, not investment houses – in the financial system. Now, that’s not just good for consumers, that’s good for the economy,” he will say.

BP Plc shares traded up 1.1 percent at 0931 GMT (5:31 a.m. EDT), outperforming a 0.2 percent rise in the STOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index, after Thad Allen, the top U.S. oil spill official said a seep detected about 3 km (1.9 miles) from the well was not caused by a pressure test on the well.

The test has stemmed the flow of oil since Thursday, bringing hope to residents in the Gulf region, and to BP investors, that the crisis has turned a corner.