Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. rose less than expected last week, holding close to the lowest level in 42 years, 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 October 24 increased by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 260,000 from the previous week’s total of 259,000. Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 4,000 to 263,000.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 33 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended October 17 fell to 2.144 million from 2.181 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.160 million.
The four-week moving average was 259,250, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week’s total of 263,250. 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 1.0970 from around 1.0960 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.5271 from 1.5263 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 120.84 from 120.94 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 97.41, compared to 97.50 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open. The Dow futures indicated a loss of 0.4% at the open, the S&P 500 futures pointed to a drop of 0.45%, while Nasdaq 100 futures declined 0.6%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,156.90 a troy ounce, compared to $1,154.60 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $45.45 a barrel from $45.41 earlier.