U.S. initial jobless claims fall more-than-expected last week

Forexpros – The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell more-than-expected, 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 February 4 fell by 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 358,000, beating expectations for a decline to 370,000.

The previous week’s figure was revised up to 373,000 from 367,000.

Jobless claims have remained below 400,000, a level historically associated with an improving labor market, in 13 of the past 15 weeks.

Continuing jobless claims in the week ended January 28 fell to 3.515 million, beating expectations for a decline to 3.525 million. Continuing claims for the previous week were revised up to 3.451 million from 3.437 million.

The average of new claims over the past four weeks decreased by 11,000 to 366,250. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.

Following the release of the data, the U.S. dollar held on to modest gains against the euro, with EUR/USD easing down 0.08% to trade at 1.3251.

Meanwhile, U.S. stock future indices turned mixed to higher after the release of the data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a modest rise of 0.1%, S&P 500 futures added 0.1%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures pointed to a gain of 0.15%.