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 October 29 increased by 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 265,000 from the previous week’s total of 258,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to hold steady at 258,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 257,750, up 4,750 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 October 22 fell to 2.026 million from 2.040 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to inch up to 2.044 million.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1071 from around 1.1067 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.2478 from 1.2485 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 103.13 from 103.15 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 97.37, compared to 97.34 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a marginally higher open. The blue-chip Dow futures rose 48 points, or 0.27%, the S&P 500 futures tacked on 6 points, or 0.29%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures increased 4 points, or 0.08%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,291.65 a troy ounce, compared to $1,291.75 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $45.67 a barrel from $45.65 earlier.