Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell to a 12-week low, 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 February 13 decreased by 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 262,000 from the previous week’s total of 269,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 6,000 to 275,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 49 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended February 6 rose to 2.273 million from 2.243 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to rise to 2.250 million.
The four-week moving average was 273,250, a decline of 8,000 from the previous week's 281,250. 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 1.1087 from around 1.1092 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.4367 from 1.4375 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 113.88 from 113.81 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 97.00, compared to 96.95 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open. The Dow futures rose 56 points, or 0.34%, the S&P 500 futures tacked on 5 points, or 0.25%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 17 points, or 0.4%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,205.70 a troy ounce, compared to $1,207.30 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $31.53 a barrel from $31.50 earlier.