Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell to a five-week low, remaining 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 August 20 decreased by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 261,000 from the previous week’s total of 262,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 3,000 to 265,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 264,000, down 1,250 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 August 13 declined to 2.145 million from 2.175 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to inch down to 2.153 million.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1283 from around 1.1287 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.3183 from 1.3187 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 100.53 from 100.47 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 94.70, compared to 94.68 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a modestly lower open. The blue-chip Dow futures shed 36 points, or 0.19%, the S&P 500 futures dipped 5 points, or 0.21%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures shed 9 points, or 0.19%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,322.15 a troy ounce, compared to $1,323.60 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $46.66 a barrel from $46.63 earlier.