Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell more than expected, remaining in territory associated with a healthy 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 August 13 decreased by 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 262,000 from the previous week’s total of 266,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to decline by 1,000 to 265,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 265,250, up 2,500 from the previous week. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended August 6 rose to 2.175 million from 2.160 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to inch down to 2.140 million.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1323 from around 1.1317 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.3162 from 1.3151 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 100.29 from 100.37 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 94.36, compared to 94.44 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a modestly lower open. The blue-chip Dow futures shed 11 points, or 0.06%, the S&P 500 futures dipped 3 points, or 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures shed 7 points, or 0.14%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,357.25 a troy ounce, compared to $1,356.35 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $47.16 a barrel from $47.08 earlier.