• Weekly Initial Jobless Claims in US declined by 71,000.
• US Dollar Index continues to push higher toward 97.00.

There were 199,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits in the US during the week ending November 20, the data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) revealed on Wednesday. This reading followed the previous print of 270,000 (revised from 268,000) and came in better than the market expectation of 260,000.

Market reaction

The greenback continues to outperform its rivals after this data and the US Dollar Index was last seen rising 0.3% on the day at 96.78.

Key takeaways

"The 4-week moving average was 252,250, a decrease of 21,000 from the previous week's revised average."

"The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.5% for the week ending November 13."

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending November 13 was 2,049,000, a decrease of 60,000 from the previous week's revised level."