Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week unexpectedly fell, sparking optimism over the economy with the consistently 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 April 9 decreased by 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 253,000 from the previous week’s total of 266,000 which was revised down from 267,000.
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 3,000 to 270,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 57 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended April 2 fell to 2.171 million from 2.189 million in the preceding week. The previous week’s figured was revised down from 2.191 million.
Analysts had expected continuing claims to drop to 2.183 million.
The four-week moving average was 265,000, a decline of 1,500 from the previous week's revised figure of 266,500. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
Immediately after the report, which was released simultaneously with the inflation data, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1267 from around 1.1253 ahead of the publication; GBP/USD was at 1.4146 from 1.4141 earlier; while USD/JPY was at 109.31 from 109.43 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 94.91, compared to 95.01 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures reacted positively to the data release and pointed to a flat to higher open. The Dow futures inched up 15 points, or 0.08%, the S&P 500 futures edged forward 2 points, or 0.07%), while the Nasdaq 100 futures advance 3 points, or 0.05%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,237.90 a troy ounce, compared to $1,236.10 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $42.05 a barrel from $41.89 earlier.