Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. fell in line with expectations last week, remaining 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 14 declined by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 271,000 from the previous week’s total of 276,000.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 36 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended November 7 fell to 2.175 million from 2.177 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.170 million.
The four-week moving average was 270,750, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week’s total of 267,750. 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 1.0678 from around 1.0675 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.5265 from 1.5267 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 123.17 from 123.16 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 99.47, compared to 99.45 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock markets pointed to a higher open. The Dow futures pointed to a gain of 21 points, or 0.12%, at the open, the S&P 500 futures indicated a rise 5 points, or 0.24%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures increased 13 points, or 0.27%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,068.80 a troy ounce, compared to $1,069.50 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $41.56 a barrel from $41.55 earlier.