Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose from a 12-week low, remaining in territory usually associated 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 February 20 increased by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 272,000 from the previous week’s total of 262,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 8,000 to 270,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 50 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended February 13 fell to 2.253 million from 2.271 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to drop to 2.260 million.
The four-week moving average was 272,000, a decline of 1,250 from the previous week's 273,250. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1012 from around 1.1028 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.3944 from 1.3974 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 112.57 from 112.50 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 97.53, compared to 97.41ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to flat open. The Dow futures inched up 2 points, or 0.01%, the S&P 500 futures were flat, while the Nasdaq 100 futures shed points, or 0.17%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,235.00 a troy ounce, compared to $1,237.90 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $31.73 a barrel from $31.91 earlier.