• Initial Claims were a tad higher than expected but Continued Claims saw a much larger than expected drop. 
• There was no FX market reaction, with markets instead focused on upcoming central bank speak. 

There were 184,000 US Initial Jobless Claims in the week ending on 16 April, the latest data released by the US Department of Labour showed on Thursday, a tad above the expected decline to 180,000 from 186,000 a week earlier. That meant the four-week average number of initial claims rose to 177,250 in the week ending on 16 April from 172,750 a week earlier. 

Continued Claims, meanwhile, fell to 1.417M in the week ending on 9 April, larger than the expected drop to 1.455M from 1.475M a week earlier. As a result, the Insured Unemployment Rate dropped to 1.0% from 1.1% a week before. 

Market Reaction

There was no market reaction to the latest US data, with markets more focused on upcoming Fed speak from the likes of Fed's Jerome Powell and ECB's Christine Lagarde later in the day.