Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell unexpectedly, staying close to the lowest level in four decades, official data showed on Thursday.
The number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending Oct. 28 decreased by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 229,000 from the previous week’s total of 234,000, the U.S. Department of Labor said.
Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 1,000 to 235,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 232,500, down 7,250 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 Oct. 21 inched down to 1.884 million from 1.899 million in the preceding week.
USD/JPY was at 114.18 from around 114.15 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1655 from around 1.1658 earlier, while GBP/USD was at 1.3125 from 1.3135.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 94.61, compared to 94.57 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a modestly lower open. The blue-chip Dow futures dipped 0.1%, the S&P 500 futures shed 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures slumped around 0.1%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,275.48 a troy ounce, compared to $1,276.30 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $54.24 a barrel from $54.27 earlier.