Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. rose to 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 October 31 increased by 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 276,000 from the previous week’s total of 260,000. Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 2,000 to 262,000.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 34 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended October 24 rose to 2.163 million from 2.146 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.144 million.
The four-week moving average was 262,750, an increase of 3,500 from the previous week’s total of 259,250. 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 1.0884 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.5259 from 1.5262 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 121.78 from 121.82 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 98.06, compared to 98.03 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open. The Dow futures indicated a gain of 0.35%, the S&P 500 futures pointed to a rise of 0.35%, while Nasdaq 100 futures tacked on 0.25%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,107.80 a troy ounce, compared to $1,107.30 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $46.37 a barrel from $46.34 earlier.