• There were 214,000 initial jobless claims in the US in the week ending on 12 March, less than the 220,000 expected. 
• FX markets did not see much of a reaction to the latest batch of US data. 

There were 214,000 initial jobless claims in the US in the week ending on 12 March, less than the 220,000 expected and below the week prior, when there were 229,000 claims (revised up from 227,000), data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) revealed on Thursday. The four-week moving average of initial claims thus fell to 223,000 from 231,750 the week before. 

Continued claims in the week ending on 5 March fell to 1.419M, larger than the expected drop to 1.485M from 1.49M the week prior (which was revised down from 1.494M). The Insured Unemployment rate in the week ending on 5 March thus fell to 1.0% from 1.1% the week before.

Market Reaction

FX markets did not see much of a reaction to the latest batch of US data, which was broadly stronger than expected, but won't change much for the Fed.