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 February 14 decreased by 21,000 to a seasonally adjusted 283,000 from the previous week’s total of 304,000.
Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to fall by 11,000 to 293,000 last week.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended February 7 rose to 2.425 million from 2.367 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to increase to 2.374 million.
The four-week moving average was 283,250, a decrease of 6,500 from the previous week’s total of 289,750. 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 1.1382 from around 1.1380 ahead of the release of the data, while GBP/USD was at 1.5418 from 1.5414 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 119.03 from 119.04 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 94.42, compared to 94.43 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures remained mixed. The Dow futures pointed to a loss of 0.15% at the open, the S&P 500 futures dipped 0.2%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures tacked on 0.1%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,218.10 a troy ounce, compared to $1,216.90 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $50.66 a barrel from $50.64 earlier.