Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose unexpectedly, but remained 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 July 30 increased by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 269,000 from the previous week’s total of 266,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to decline by 1,000 to 265,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 260,250, up 3,750 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.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended July 23 declined to 2.138 million from 2.144 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to inch down to 2.130 million.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1140 from around 1.1136 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.3172 from 1.3166 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 101.20 from 101.22 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 95.65, compared to 95.69 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a mixed open. The blue-chip Dow futures rose 24 points, or 0.13%, the S&P 500 futures added 2 points, or 0.06%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures shed 3 points, or 0.05%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,367.95 a troy ounce, compared to $1,367.15 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $40.70 a barrel from $40.73 earlier.