The U.S. Labor Department released its jobless claims figures on Thursday. The number of initial jobless claims in the week ending July 11 in the U.S. fell by 15,000 to 281,000 from 296,000 in the previous week. The previous week's reading was revised up from 297,000.

Analysts had expected the number of initial jobless claims to be 285,000.

Jobless claims remained below 300,000 the 15th straight week. This threshold is associated with the strengthening of the labour market.

Continuing jobless claims declined by 112,000 to 2,215,000 in the week ended July 04.