Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. fell more than expected last week, remaining in territory consistent with a firming of the American labor market and bolstering optimism over the health of the U.S. economy, 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 29 decreased by 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 238,000 from the previous week’s total of 257,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to drop by just 10,000 to 247,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims below the 300,000-level are usually associated with a firming labor market.
Meanwhile, continuing jobless claims in the week ended April 22 unexpectedly fell to 1.964 million from 1.987 million in the preceding week which was revised down from an initial reading of 1.988 million.
Analysts had expected continuing claims to rise to 2.000 million.
The four-week moving average was 243,000, a rise of 750 from the previous week's revised reading of 242,250.
The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
After the report, which was released simultaneously with international trade for March, along with first quarter nonfarm productivity and unit labor costs, EUR/USD was trading at 1.0922 compared to 1.0924 ahead of the release, GBP/USD was at 1.2884 from 1.2883 earlier, while USD/JPY traded at 112.97 compared to 112.85 before the publication.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was unchanged at 99.05.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a slightly higher open. The Dow futures rose 48 points, or 0.23%, the S&P 500 futures gained 6 points, or 0.23%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 17 points, or 0.31%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,231.12 a troy ounce, compared to $1,232.39 ahead of the data, while U.S. crude oil traded at $46.91 a barrel from $46.81 earlier.