Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose less 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 September 10 increased by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 260,000 from the previous week’s total of 259,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 6,000 to 265,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 260,750, down 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 September 3 rose to 2.143 million from 2.142 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to inch down to 2.140 million.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1272 from around 1.1258 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.3207 from 1.3190 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 102.08 from 102.20 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 95.22, compared to 95.28 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a marginally higher open. The blue-chip Dow futures tacked on 75 points, or 0.42%, the S&P 500 futures rose 10 points, or 0.45%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures added 22 points, or 0.45%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,327.85 a troy ounce, compared to $1,325.65 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $43.95 a barrel from $43.87 earlier.