Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. rose unexpectedly last week, but remained in territory usually associated with a firming 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 January 8 increased by 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 284,000 from the previous week’s total of 277,000.Analysts expected jobless claims to fall by 2,000 to 275,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 44 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended January 1 rose to 2.263 million from 2.234 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to fall to 2.215 million.
The four-week moving average was 278,750, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's 275,750. 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 1.0894 from around 1.0889 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.4400 from 1.4401 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 117.73 from 117.78 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 98.90, compared to 98.92 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open. The Dow futures pointed to a gain of 78 points, or 0.49%, the S&P 500 futures indicated a rise of 9 points, or 0.48%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures increased 10 points, or 0.23%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,087.10 a troy ounce, compared to $1,085.70 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $30.91 a barrel from $30.88 earlier.