Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. held steady at a two-month high 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 November 7 was unchanged from a week earlier at a seasonally adjusted 276,000. Analysts had expected jobless claims to fall by 6,000 to 270,000.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 35 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended October 31 rose to 2.174 million from 2.169 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.160 million.
The four-week moving average was 267,750, an increase of 5,000 from the previous week’s total of 262,750. 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 1.0730 from around 1.0724 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.5185 from 1.5183 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 122.97 from 122.98 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 99.19, compared to 99.22 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open. The Dow futures indicated a loss of 0.35%, the S&P 500 futures pointed to a decline of 0.25%, while Nasdaq 100 futures shed 0.25%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,082.00 a troy ounce, compared to $1,081.60 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $42.33 a barrel from $42.32 earlier.