Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose more than expected, but remained 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 April 15 increased by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 244,000 from the previous week’s total of 234,000, the U.S. Department of Labor said.
Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 8,000 to 242,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 243,000, down 4,250 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 April 8 dropped to 1.979 million from 2.028 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to inch down to 2.020 million.
USD/JPY was at 109.00 from around 109.02 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/USD was trading at 1.0749 from around 1.0745 earlier, while GBP/USD was at 1.2807 from 1.2803.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 99.49, compared to 99.52 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a slightly higher open. The blue-chip Dow futures rose 35 points, the S&P 500 futures added 7 points while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 21 points.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,282.50 a troy ounce, compared to $1,282.00 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $51.03 a barrel from $50.98 earlier.