Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose to the highest level in almost five months, dampening optimism over the strength of the economy and dimming prospects for higher interest rates, 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 July 4 increased by 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 297,000 from the previous week’s total of 282,000. Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to fall by 7,000 to 275,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 18 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended June 27 rose to 2.334 million from 2.265 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.248 million.
The four-week moving average was 279,750, an increase of 4,500 from the previous week’s total of 275,000. 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 1.1052 from around 1.1048 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.5396 from 1.5391 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 121.46 from 121.49 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 96.54, compared to 96.59 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open. The Dow futures pointed to a gain of 1%, the S&P 500 futures tacked on 1.1%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 1.15%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,165.50 a troy ounce, compared to $1,162.40 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $53.11 a barrel from $53.17 earlier.