Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week increased more than expected last week, but remained in territory consistent 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 November 26 increased by 17,000 to a seasonally adjusted 268,000 from the previous week’s total of 251,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by just 2,000 to 253,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims below the 300,000-level are usually associated with a firming labor market.
The Department of Labor indicated that there were no special factors impacting this week’s initial claims and that it marked 91 consecutive weeks of initial claims below 300,000, the longest streak since 1970.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended November 19 unexpectedly rose to 2.081 million from 2.043 million in the preceding week.
Analysts had expected continuing claims to decrease to 2.040 million.
The four-week moving average was 251,500, a rise of 500 from the previous week's 251,000.
The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
Immediately after the report, EUR/USD was trading at 1.0625 from around 1.0623 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.2643 from 1.2639 earlier, while USD/JPY traded at 114.26 compared to 114.28 before the release.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 101.21, compared to 101.24 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a flat open. The Dow futures inched up 11 points, or 0.05%, the S&P 500 futures slipped less than a point, or 0.01%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 5 points, or 0.09%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,172.00 a troy ounce, compared to $1,171.15 ahead of the data, while U.S. crude oil traded at $50.41 a barrel from $50.38 earlier.