Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last held steady at a three-month low, underlining optimism over the health 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 July 9 was unchanged at 254,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to increase by 11,000 to 265,000 last week.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended July 2 rose to 2.149 million from 2.117 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to inch up to 2.128 million.
The four-week moving average was 259,000, down 5,750 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.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1141 from around 1.1153 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.3355 from 1.3380 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 105.67 from 105.68 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 96.01, compared to 95.92 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open. The blue-chip Dow futures jumped 150 points, or 0.8%, the S&P 500 futures tacked on 17 points, or 0.8%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures added 31points, or 0.65%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,325.05 a troy ounce, compared to $1,325.00 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $45.56 a barrel from $45.61 earlier.