Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose more than expected, but remained in territory consistent with a strengthening labor market, official data showed on Thursday.
The number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending Sept. 22 increased by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 272,000 from the previous week’s total of 260,000, the U.S. Department of Labor said.
Analysts expected jobless claims to rise by 10,000 to 270,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 277,750, up 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 Sept. 15 inched down to 1.934 million from 1.979 million in the preceding week.
USD/JPY was at 112.60 from around 112.53 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1777 from around 1.1783 earlier, while GBP/USD was at 1.3429 from 1.3435.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 93.09, compared to 93.05 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open. The blue-chip Dow futures fell 0.2%, the S&P 500 futures declined 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures slumped around 0.4%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,287.65 a troy ounce, compared to $1,287.91 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $52.59 a barrel from $52.56 earlier.