Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week unexpectedly fell last week, remaining 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 October 1 decreased by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 249,000 from the previous week’s total of 254,000, hovering just above a 40-year low reached back in April (248,000).
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 3,000 to 257,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims below the 300,000-level are usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended September 24 fell to 2.058 million from a revised 2.064 million (initially 2.062 million) in the preceding week.
Analysts had expected continuing claims to rise to 2.090 million.
The four-week moving average was 253,500, a decrease of 2,500 from the previous week's 256,000.
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, the dollar moved higher, touching two-month highs. Specifically, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1179 from around 1.1184 ahead of the publication; GBP/USD was at 1.2641 from 1.2644 earlier; while USD/JPY changed hands at 103.89 from 103.77 before the release.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was trading at 96.44 compared to 96.43 previously.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open. The Dow futures lost 26 points, or 0.14%, the S&P 500 futures fell 4 points, or 0.17%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures traded down 8 points, or 0.16%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,262.05 a troy ounce, compared to $1,266.00 ahead of the data, while U.S. crude oil traded at $50.16 a barrel from $50.07 earlier.