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 October 13 declined by 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 222,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 244,000, the U.S. Department of Labor said.
Analysts expected jobless claims to fall to 240,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 248,250, down 9,500 from a revised total of 257,750 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 13 fell to 1.888 million from a revised 1.904 million in the preceding week.
USD/JPY was at 112.38 from around 112.40 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1830 from around 1.1832 earlier, while GBP/USD was at 1.3173 from 1.3172.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was flat at 93.07.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open. The blue-chip Dow Futures fell 0.45%%, the S&P 500 futures slipped 0.45%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures decreased 0.67%.