Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. fell more than expected last week, remaining in territory usually associated with a firming 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 December 18 decreased by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 267,000 from the previous week’s total of 272,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to fall by 2,000 to 270,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 41 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended December 11 dipped to 2.195 million from 2.242 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.210 million.
The four-week moving average was 272,500, an increase of 1,750 from the previous week's 270,750. 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 1.0944 from around 1.0945 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.4915 from 1.4917 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 120.43 from 120.45 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 98.10, compared to 98.09 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open. The Dow futures pointed to a gain of 18 points, or 0.1%, the S&P 500 futures indicated a rise 2 points, or 0.08%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures increased 7 points, or 0.14%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,072.20 a troy ounce, compared to $1,072.60 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $37.72 a barrel from $37.73 earlier.