The U.S. Labor Department released its jobless claims figures on Thursday. The number of initial jobless claims in the week ending January 09 in the U.S. rose by 7,000 to 284,000 from 277,000 in the previous week. Analysts had expected jobless claims to fall to 275,000.
Jobless claims remained below 300,000 the 45th straight week. This threshold is associated with the strengthening of the labour market.
Continuing jobless claims increased by 29,000 to 2,263,000 in the week ended January 02.