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 11 increased by 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 277,000 from the previous week’s total of 264,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 6,000 to 270,000 last week.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended June 14 rose to 2.157 million from 2.112 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to inch up to 2.120 million.
The four-week moving average was 269,250, a decline of 250 from the previous week's 269,500. 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 1.1178 from around 1.1179 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.4134 from 1.4128 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 104.39 from 104.45 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 95.11, compared to 95.14 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open. The blue-chip Dow futures shed 83 points, or 0.47%, the S&P 500 futures dipped 11 points, or 0.53%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures declined 26 points, or 0.57%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,311.75 a troy ounce, compared to $1,310.90 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $47.09 a barrel from $47.11 earlier.