Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose less than expected, remaining close to the lowest level in four decades, official data showed on Thursday.
The number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending Oct. 21 increased by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 233,000 from the previous week’s total of 223,000, the U.S. Department of Labor said.
Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 12,000 to 235,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 239,500, down 9,000 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 Oct. 14 inched down to 1.893 million from 1.896 million in the preceding week.
USD/JPY was at 113.93 from around 113.82 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1750 from around 1.1754 earlier, while GBP/USD was at 1.3190 from 1.3195.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 93.95, compared to 93.92 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a mixed open. The blue-chip Dow futures rose 0.2%, the S&P 500 futures tacked on 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures slumped around 0.1%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,275.96 a troy ounce, compared to $1,276.36 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $52.22 a barrel from $52.24 earlier.