Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell more than expected, official data showed on Thursday.
The number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending September 29 declined by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 260,000 from the previous week’s total of 272,000, the U.S. Department of Labor said.
Analysts expected jobless claims to fall by 7,000 to 265,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 268,250, up 9,500 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 September 29 rose to 1.938 million from a revised 1.936 million in the preceding week.
USD/JPY was at 112.53 from around 112.48 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1738 from around 1.1741 earlier, while GBP/USD was at 1.3157 from 1.3163.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 93.48, compared to 93.47 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a steady to higher open. The blue-chip Dow Futures added 0.11%, the S&P 500 futures inched up 0.04%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.39%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,289.14 a troy ounce, compared to $1,280.30 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $50.06 a barrel from $50.01 earlier.