Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell to the lowest level since April, underlining optimism over the health of the 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 16 fell by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 253,000 from the previous week’s total of 254,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to increase by 11,000 to 265,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 257,750, down 1,250 from the previous week. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended July 9 declined to 2.128 million from 2.153 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to inch down to 2.145 million.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1037 from around 1.1017 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.3183 from 1.3186 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 106.20 from 106.17 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 97.01, compared to 97.05 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a mixed open. The blue-chip Dow futures shed 28 points, or 0.15%, the S&P 500 futures dipped 2 points, or 0.09%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures added 3points, or 0.05%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,320.55 a troy ounce, compared to $1,321.25 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $45.62 a barrel from $45.52 earlier.