Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose more than expected, dampening optimism over the strength of the labor market, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending February 7 increased by 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 304,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 279,000.
Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to rise by 6,000 to 285,000 last week.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended January 31 fell to 2.354 million from 2.405 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.393 million.
The four-week moving average was 289,750, a decrease of 3,250 from the previous week’s total of 293,000. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1344 from around 1.1335 ahead of the release of the data, while GBP/USD was at 1.5380 from 1.5362 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 119.43 from 119.71 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 94.70, compared to 94.79 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures trimmed gains. The Dow futures pointed to a gain of 0.35% at the open, the S&P 500 futures rose 0.4%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures tacked on 0.45%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,226.50 a troy ounce, compared to $1,223.60 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $49.90 a barrel from $49.97 earlier.