US weekly Initial Jobless Claims decline to 239K vs. 240K expected

• Initial Jobless Claims in the US decreased by 11,000 in the week ending August 12.
• US Dollar Index stays in negative territory slighty above 103.00.

There were 239,000 initial jobless claims in the week ending August 12, the weekly data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) showed on Thursday. This print followed the previous week’s print of 250,000 (revised from 248,000) and came in slightly below the market expectation of 240,000.

Further details of the publication revealed that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2% and the 4-week moving average was 234,250, an increase of 2,750 previous week’s revised average.

“The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending August 5 was 1,716,000, an increase of 32,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 1,684,000,” the DOL further noted in its publication.

Market reaction

The US Dollar stays on the back foot after this report, with the US Dollar Index losing 0.35% on the day slightly above 103.00.