The U.S. Labor Department released its jobless claims figures on Thursday. The number of initial jobless claims in the week ending August 08 in the U.S. rose by 5,000 to 274,000 from 269,000 in the previous week. The previous week's figure was revised down from 270,000.

Analysts had expected the number of initial jobless claims to be 270,000.

Jobless claims remained below 300,000 the 23th straight week. This threshold is associated with the strengthening of the labour market.

The four-week moving average of initial jobless claims declined by 1,750 to 266,250 last week. It was the lowest level since April 2000.

Continuing jobless claims increased by 15,000 to 2,273,000 in the week ended August 01.