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 March 7 decreased by 36,000 to a seasonally adjusted 289,000 from the previous week’s total of 325,000.
Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to fall by 20,000 to 305,000 last week.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended February 28 fell to 2.418 million from 2.423 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.400 million.
The four-week moving average was 302,250, a decrease of 3,750 from the previous week’s total of 306,000. 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 1.0670 from around 1.0618 ahead of the release of the data, while GBP/USD was at 1.5017 from 1.4980 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 120.81 from 121.06 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 98.75, compared to 99.08 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a modestly higher open. The Dow futures pointed to a gain of 0.4%, the S&P 500 futures rose 0.35%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures tacked on 0.3%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,158.20 a troy ounce, compared to $1,155.40 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $48.54 a barrel from $48.56 earlier.