Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell more than expected, remaining in territory usually associated with a firming labor market, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending June 18 declined by 18,000 to a seasonally adjusted 259,000 from the previous week’s total of 277,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to fall by 7,000 to 270,000 last week.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended June 11 declined to 2.142 million from 2.162 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to inch down to 2.150 million.
The four-week moving average was 267,000, a decline of 2,250 from the previous week's 269,250. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1404 from around 1.1398 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.4889 from 1.4891 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 105.80 from 105.82 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 93.19, compared to 93.21 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open. The blue-chip Dow futures jumped 169 points, or 0.96%, the S&P 500 futures rose 20 points, or 0.95%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 41 points, or 0.92%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,262.40 a troy ounce, compared to $1,263.75 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $49.83 a barrel from $49.88 earlier.