After reporting an unexpected drop in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the previous week, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that initial jobless claims rebounded by more than anticipated in the week ended June 15th.

The report said initial jobless claims climbed to 354,000, an increase of 18,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 336,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to edge up to 340,000 from the 334,000 originally reported for the previous week.