Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week unexpectedly fell last week and 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 September 17 decreased by 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 252,000 from the previous week’s total of 260,000. This was its lowest level since July.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 2,000 to 262,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims below the 300,000-level are usually associated with a firming labor market. They have been below this level for 81 consecutive weeks, its longest stretch since 1970.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended September 10 dropped to 2.113 million from a revised 2.149 million (initially 2.143 million) in the preceding week.
Analysts had expected continuing claims to remain unchanged at 2.143 million.
The four-week moving average was 258,500, a decrease of 2,250 from the previous week's 260,750.
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 1.1241 from around 1.1237 ahead of the publication; GBP/USD was at 1.3073 from 1.3069 earlier; while USD/JPY changed hands at 100.59 from 100.63 before the release.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was trading at 95.05 compared to 95.06 previously.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open. The Dow futures rose 71 points, or 0.39%, the S&P 500 futures gained 8 points, or 0.37%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 21 points, or 0.43%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,341.05 a troy ounce, compared to $1,341.85 ahead of the data, while U.S. crude oil traded at $46.20 a barrel from $46.23 earlier.