Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week registered an unexpected decline, and continued to remain in territory consistent 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 June 4 decreased by 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 264,000 from the previous week’s total of 268,000, which was revised up from the initial read of 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 66 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended May 28 fell to to 2.095 million from 2.172 million in the preceding week.
Analysts had expected continuing claims to drop to 2.171 million.
The four-week moving average was 269,500, a decrease of 1,750 from the previous week's revised figure of 277,000 (initially 276,750). 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, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1343 from around 1.1351 ahead of the publication; GBP/USD was at 1.4473 from 1.4467 earlier; while USD/JPY was at 106.51 from 106.41 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 93.85, compared to 93.83 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open. The Dow futures fell 56 points, or 0.31%, the S&P 500 futures lost 8 points, or 0.35%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures traded down 13 points, or 0.29%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,261.05 a troy ounce, compared to $1,262.55 ahead of the data, while U.S.crude oil traded at $50.62 a barrel from $50.62 earlier.