U.S. jobless claims fall by 3,000 to 258,000 last week

The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell less than expected, but held near the lowest level since March 1973, underlining optimism over the health of the labor market. The U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending March 25 declined by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 258,000 from the previous week’s total of 261,000. Analysts expected jobless claims to fall by 13,000 to 248,000 last week. The four-week moving average was 254,250, up 7,750 from the previous week. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data. Continuing jobless claims in the week ended March 18 rose to 2.052 million from 1.987 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to inch up to 2.020 million. USD/JPY was at 111.34 from around 111.23 ahead of the release of the data, EUR/USD was trading at 1.0734 from around 1.0743 earlier, while GBP/USD was at 1.2457 from 1.2465. The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 100.00, compared to 99.94 ahead of the report. Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a slightly lower open. The blue-chip Dow futures shed 16 points, the S&P 500 futures dipped 2 points while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures fell 5 points. Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,246.70 a troy ounce, compared to $1,249.80 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $49.84 a barrel from $49.81 earlier.