Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose more than expected, but remained 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 25 rose by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 268,000 from the previous week’s total of 258,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to increase by 9,000 to 267,000 last week.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended June 18 declined to 2.120 million from 2.140 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to inch up to 2.150 million.
The four-week moving average was 266,750, unchanged 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.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1092 from around 1.1101 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.3445 from 1.3441 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 102.81 from 102.78 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 95.91, compared to 95.84 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a modestly lower open. The blue-chip Dow futures dipped 8 points, or 0.04%, the S&P 500 futures shed 2 points, or 0.07%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures declined 6 points, or 0.14%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,321.05 a troy ounce, compared to $1,319.50 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $48.95 a barrel from $48.96 earlier.