Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. rose less than expected last week, one week after hitting the lowest level since November 1973, 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 25 rose by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 267,000 from the previous week’s total of 255,000. Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to rise by 15,000 to 270,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 21 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended July 18 rose to 2.262 million from 2.216 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.212 million.
The four-week moving average was 274,750, a decrease of 3,750 from the previous week’s total of 278,500. 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 1.0937 from around 1.0945 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.5625 from 1.5622 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 124.47 from 124.44 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 97.63, compared to 97.55 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open. The Dow futures indicated a loss of 0.3% at the open, the S&P 500 futures pointed to a drop of 0.3%, while Nasdaq 100 futures declined 0.1%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,084.00 a troy ounce, compared to $1,084.80 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $48.95 a barrel from $48.91 earlier.