Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week registered an unexpected decline and continued to remain 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 July 2 decreased by 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 254,000 from the previous week’s total of 270,000, which was revised from the initial read of 268,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 2,000 to 270,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims below the 300,000-level are usually associated with a firming labor market and have been below that level for 70 consecutive weeks, its best stretch since 1973.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended June 25 fell to 2.124 million from 2.168 million in the preceding week, which was revised from the original figure of 2.120 million.
Analysts had expected continuing claims to drop to 2.113 million.
The four-week moving average was 267,750, an increase of 500 from the previous week's revised figure of 267,250 (initially 266,750).
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 1.1075 from around 1.1083 ahead of the publication; GBP/USD was at 1.2995 from 1.3019 earlier; while USD/JPY was at 101.06 from 101.03 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 96.16, compared to 96.10 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a flat open. The Dow futures edged down 17 points, or 0.10%, the S&P 500 futures gave up 2 points, or 0.10%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 2 points, or 0.04%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,364.95 a troy ounce, compared to $1,364.90 ahead of the data, while U.S.crude oil traded at $47.91 a barrel from $47.95 earlier.