US weekly Initial Jobless Claims decline to 216K vs. 234K expected

• Initial Jobless Claims in the US decreased by 13,000 in the week ending September 2.
• US Dollar Index climbed to fresh multi-month highs above 105.00 after the data.

There were 216,000 initial jobless claims in the week ending September 2, the weekly data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) showed on Thursday. This print followed the previous week’s print of 229,000 (revised from 228,000) and came better than the market expectation of 234,000.

Further details of the publication revealed that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate edged lower to 1.1% from 1.2% and the 4-week moving average stood at 229,250, a decrease of 8,500 from the previous week’s revised average.

“The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending August 26 was 1,679,000, a decrease of 40,000 from the previous week’s revised level,” the publication further read.

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index continues to push higher after this data and was last seen trading at its highest level since early March at 105.12, rising 0.27% on a daily basis.