The U.S. Labor Department released its jobless claims figures on Thursday. The number of initial jobless claims in the week ending October 31 in the U.S. rose by 16,000 to 276,000 from 260,000 in the previous week.

Analysts had expected the initial jobless claims to increase to 262,000.

Jobless claims remained below 300,000 the 35th straight week. This threshold is associated with the strengthening of the labour market.

Continuing jobless claims increased by 17,000 to 2,163,000 in the week ended October 24.