Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell more than expected, official data showed on Thursday.
The number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending October 6 declined by 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 243,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 258,000, the U.S. Department of Labor said.
Analysts expected jobless claims to fall by 7,000 to 251,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 257,500, up 9,000 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 October 6 fell to 1.889 million from 1.921 million in the preceding week.
USD/JPY was at 112.32 from around 112.28 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1852 from around 1.1854 earlier, while GBP/USD was at 1.3134 from 1.3136.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 92.94, compared to 92.91 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a steady to lower open. The blue-chip Dow Futures eased 0.08%, the S&P 500 futures slipped 0.16%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures dipped around 0.06%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,286.26 a troy ounce, compared to $1,296.95 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $50.62 a barrel from $50.59 earlier.