Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell more than expected, fuelling optimism over the strength of the 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 November 1 decreased by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 278,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 288,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to fall by 3,000 to 285,000 last week.
The number of Americans applying for new jobless benefits held below 300,000 for the eighth consecutive week, signaling the recovery in the labor market is gaining momentum.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended October 25 fell to 2.348 million from 2.387 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.360 million.
The four-week moving average was 279,000, a decline of 2,250 from the previous week’s total of 281,250. 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 1.2514 from around 1.2523 ahead of the release of the data, while GBP/USD was at 1.5925 from 1.5934 earlier.
Meanwhile, the outlook for U.S. equity markets was downbeat. The Dow futures indicated a loss of 0.1% at the open, the S&P 500 futures pointed to a decline of 0.2%, while Nasdaq 100 futures shed 0.1%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,145.80 a troy ounce, compared to $1,148.20 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $77.92 a barrel from $78.00 earlier.