Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell less than expected, but remained in territory associated with a healthy 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 October 22 decreased by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 258,000 from the previous week’s total of 261,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to fall by 6,000 to 255,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 253,000, up 1,000 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 15 fell to 2.039 million from 2.054 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to inch up to 2.068 million.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.0926 from around 1.0922 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.2238 from 1.2235 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 104.70 from 104.73 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 98.56, compared to 98.63 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a marginally higher open. The blue-chip Dow futures rose 42 points, or 0.23%, the S&P 500 futures tacked on 8 points, or 0.36%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures increased 21 points, or 0.43%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,272.45 a troy ounce, compared to $1,271.65 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $49.27 a barrel from $49.35 earlier.