Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose unexpectedly, 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 August 5 increased by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 244,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 241,000, the U.S. Department of Labor said.
Analysts expected jobless claims to fall by 1,000 to 240,000 last week.
The four-week moving average was 241,000, down 1,000 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 July 29 inched down to 1.951 million from 1.967 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to dip to 1.960 million.
USD/JPY was at 109.65 from around 109.76 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1744 from around 1.1727 earlier, while GBP/USD was at 1.3005 from 1.2990.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 93.46, compared to 93.57 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open. The blue-chip Dow futures fell 48 points, or around 0.2%, the S&P 500 futures declined 10 points, or about 0.4%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures slumped 35 points, or 0.6%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,288.83 a troy ounce, compared to $1,286.89 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $50.12 a barrel from $50.09 earlier.