Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose unexpectedly, 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 June 24 increased by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 244,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 242,000, the U.S. Department of Labor said.
Analysts expected jobless claims to fall by 2,000 to 240,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 242,250, down 2,750 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 June 17 inched up to 1.948 million from 1.942 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to dip to 1.940 million.
USD/JPY was at 112.68 from around 112.71 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1405 from around 1.1407 earlier, while GBP/USD was at 1.2975 from 1.2968.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 95.61, compared to 95.63 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a mixed open. The blue-chip Dow futures rose 17 points, or around 0.1%, the S&P 500 futures added 3 points, or about 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures lost 25 points, or roughly 0.4%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,245.59 a troy ounce, compared to $1,245.38 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $45.26 a barrel from $45.22 earlier.