Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week unexpectedly fell, bolstering optimism over the American economy with a reading 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 April 16 decreased by 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 24,000 from the previous week’s total of 253,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 10,000 to 263,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 59 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended April 9 fell to 2.137 million from 2.176 million in the preceding week. The previous week’s figured was revised up from 2.171 million.
Analysts had expected continuing claims to remain unchanged at 2.171 million.
The four-week moving average was 260,500, a decline of 4,500 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 265,000. 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, which was released simultaneously with the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1349 from around 1.1353 ahead of the publication; GBP/USD was at 1.4428 from 1.4417 earlier; while USD/JPY was at 109.66 from 109.64 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 94.14, compared to 94.12 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a flat to higher open. The Dow futures inched up 2 points, or 0.02%, the S&P 500 futures edged forward 2 points, or 0.10%), while the Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 5 points, or 0.11%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,269.40 a troy ounce, compared to $1,268.40 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $44.19 a barrel from $44.33 earlier.