Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. rose more than expected last week, but held 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 8 rose by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 274,000 from the previous week’s total of 269,000. Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to rise by 1,000 to 270,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 23 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.
Continuing jobless claims in the week ended August 1 rose to 2.273 million from 2.258 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to decline to 2.247 million.
The four-week moving average was 266,250, a decrease of 1,750 from the previous week’s total of 268,000. 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 1.1113 from around 1.1117 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.5623 from 1.5627 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 124.48 from 124.47 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 96.58, compared to 96.60 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open. The Dow futures pointed to a gain of 0.15%, the S&P 500 futures ticked up 0.1%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.2%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,117.40 a troy ounce, compared to $1,117.10 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $43.00 a barrel from $43.05 earlier.