Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose more than expected, but remained 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 17 increased by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 241,000 from the previous week’s total of 238,000, the U.S. Department of Labor said.
Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 2,000 to 240,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 244,750, up 1,500 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 10 inched up to 1.944 million from 1.936 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to dip to 1.928 million.
USD/JPY was at 111.20 from around 111.23 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1170 from around 1.1168 earlier, while GBP/USD was at 1.2667 from 1.2665.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 97.19, compared to 97.22 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a mildly lower open. The blue-chip Dow futures fell 13 points, or less than 0.1%, the S&P 500 futures slumped 2 points, or about 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures lost 5 points, or roughly 0.1%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,254.77 a troy ounce, compared to $1,254.55 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $42.83 a barrel from $42.78 earlier.