Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week decreased slightly less than expected last week but remained in territory consistent with a firming 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 December 24 decreased by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 265,000 from the previous week’s total of 275,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to fall by 11,000 to 264,000 last week.
The Department of Labor indicated that there were no special factors impacting this week’s initial claims and that it marked 95 consecutive weeks of initial claims below 300,000, the longest streak since 1970.
First-time jobless claims below the 300,000-level are usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended December 17 unexpectedly rose to 2.102 million from 2.039 million in the preceding week, which was revised from 2.036 million.
Analysts had expected continuing claims to decrease to 2.030 million.
The four-week moving average was 263,000, a 750 decrease from the previous week's 263,750.
The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
Immediately after the report, which was published simultaneously with the goods trade balance and wholesale inventories, EUR/USD was trading unchanged at 1.0448, GBP/USD was at 1.2235 from 1.2244 earlier, while USD/JPY traded at 116.76 compared to 116.82 before the release.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 103.00, compared to 103.02 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a flat open. The Dow futures inched down 2 points, or 0.01%, the S&P 500 futures advanced 1 point, or 0.04%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 1 point, or 0.02%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,146.75 a troy ounce, compared to $1,145.85 ahead of the data, while U.S. crude oil traded at $53.90 a barrel from $54.03 earlier.