Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose last week, but remained in territory consistent with a strengthening 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 June 20 increased by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 271,000 from the previous week’s total of 268,000. Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to rise by 4,000 to 272,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 16 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended June 13 rose to 2.247 million from 2.225 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.215 million.
The four-week moving average was 273,750, a decline of 3,250 from the previous week’s total of 277,000. 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 1.1196 from around 1.1211 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.5723 from 1.5738 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 123.72 from 123.60 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 95.50, compared to 95.37 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a modestly higher open. The Dow futures pointed to a gain of 0.35%, the S&P 500 futures tacked on 0.3%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.35%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,172.80 a troy ounce, compared to $1,173.20 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $59.87 a barrel from $59.88 earlier.