Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. rose less than expected last week, holding near 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 August 1 rose by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 270,000 from the previous week’s total of 267,000. Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to rise by 6,000 to 273,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 22 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended July 25 fell to 2.255 million from 2.269 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.240 million.
The four-week moving average was 268,250, a decrease of 6,500 from the previous week’s total of 274,750. 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 1.0879 from around 1.0889 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.5526 from 1.5529 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 124.97 from 124.90 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 98.25, compared to 98.16 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open. The Dow futures indicated a gain of 0.15% at the open, the S&P 500 futures pointed to a rise of 0.15%, while Nasdaq 100 futures tacked on 0.2%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,084.10 a troy ounce, compared to $1,085.20 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $44.62 a barrel from $44.66 earlier.