Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell unexpectedly, remaining in territory consistent with a strengthening labor market, official data showed on Thursday.
The number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending May 6 decreased by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 236,000 from the previous week’s total of 245,000, the U.S. Department of Labor said.
Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 7,000 to 245,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 243,500, up 500 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 April 29 dipped to the lowest level since 1988 at 1.918 million from 1.979 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to inch up to 1.980 million.
After the report, which was released simultaneously with producer price inflation data, USD/JPY was at 114.05 from around 113.90 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/USD was trading at 1.0840 from around 1.0850 earlier, while GBP/USD was at 1.2854 from 1.2862.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 99.73, compared to 99.65 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a slightly lower open. The blue-chip Dow futures fell 42 points, the S&P 500 futures dipped 7 points while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures shed 17 points.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,221.40 a troy ounce, compared to $1,223.20 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $47.86 a barrel from $47.91 earlier.