Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell more than expected, remaining in territory consistent with a strengthening labor market, official data showed on Thursday.
The number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending June 10 decreased by 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 237,000 from the previous week’s total of 245,000, the U.S. Department of Labor said.
Analysts expected jobless claims to fall by 3,000 to 242,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 243,000, 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 June 3 inched up to 1.935 million from 1.929 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to dip to 1.923 million.
USD/JPY was at 110.35 from around 110.21 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1155 from around 1.1164 earlier, while GBP/USD was at 1.2732 from 1.2739.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 97.39, compared to 97.32 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open. The blue-chip Dow futures fell 94 points, or around 0.5%, the S&P 500 futures slumped 17 points, or about 0.7%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures lost 63 points, or roughly 1.1%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,255.57 a troy ounce, compared to $1,256.28 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $44.50 a barrel from $44.52 earlier.