Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose less than expected, 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 September 24 increased by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 254,000 from the previous week’s total of 251,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 9,000 to 260,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 256,000, down 2,250 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 September 17 fell to 2.062 million from 2.108 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to inch up to 2.130 million.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1216 from around 1.1220 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.3013 from 1.3020 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 101.55 from 101.47 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 95.48, compared to 95.44 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a marginally lower open. The blue-chip Dow futures shed 31 points, or 0.17%, the S&P 500 futures declined 5 points, or 0.21%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 11 points, or 0.22%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,322.40 a troy ounce, compared to $1,323.15 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $46.93 a barrel from $46.95 earlier.