Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell to the lowest level since 1973, boosting optimism over the health of the 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 November 12 fell by 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 235,000 from the previous week’s total of 254,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 3,000 to 257,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 253,500, down 6,500 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 November 5 fell to 1.977 million from 2.043 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to inch down to 2.038 million.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.0702 from around 1.0718 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.2445 from 1.2452 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 109.43 from 109.29 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 100.37, compared to 100.23 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a muted open. The blue-chip Dow futures dipped 3 points, or 0.02%, the S&P 500 futures tacked on 1 point, or 0.03%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures increased 6 points, or 0.12%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,225.00 a troy ounce, compared to $1,225.75 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $46.05 a barrel from $46.14 earlier.