U.S. Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Fall to 259,000
Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. unexpectedly fell last week, bolstering optimism over the health of the U.S. economy, 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 September 16 decreased by 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 259,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 282,000 (initially 284,000).
Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise to 300,000 last week.
First-time jobless claims below the 300,000-level are usually associated with a firming labor market.
Meanwhile, continuing jobless claims in the week ended September 9 advanced to 1.980 million from 1.936 million in the preceding week which was revised down from an initial reading of 1.944 million.
Analysts had expected continuing claims to increase to 1.975 million.
The four-week moving average was 268,750, a gain of 6,000 from the previous week's revised reading of 262,750 (initially 263,250).
The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.
After the report, which was published simultaneously with the Philly Fed manufacturing index, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1914 from around 1.1915 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.3501 from 1.3498 earlier, while USD/JPY was unchanged at 112.39.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was unchanged at 92.19.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a flat to lower open. The Dow futures dropped 13 points, or 0.06%, the S&P 500 futures slipped 2 points, or 0.06%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures edged down 5 points, or 0.09%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,292.97 a troy ounce, compared to $1,295.73 ahead of the data, while crude oil was at $50.27 a barrel, compared to $50.24 before the release.
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