Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. rose less than expected last week, remaining in territory consistent with a strengthening 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 19 increased by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 267,000 from the previous week’s total of 264,000. Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 7,000 to 271,000.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 28 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended September 12 fell to 2.242 million from 2.243 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.235 million.
The four-week moving average was 271,750, a decrease of 750 from the previous week’s total of 272,500. 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 1.1243 from around 1.1242 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.5210 from 1.5215 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 119.56 from 119.53 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 96.01, compared to 96.03 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open. The Dow futures pointed to a drop of 0.9%, the S&P 500 futures shed 0.85%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures lost 1.1%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,136.50 a troy ounce, compared to $1,137.00 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $44.25 a barrel from $44.29 earlier.