The U.S. Labor Department released its jobless claims figures on Thursday. The number of initial jobless claims in the week ending March 05 in the U.S. decreased by 18,000 to 259,000 from 277,000 in the previous week. It was the lowest reading since mid-October.

The previous week's figure was revised down from 278,000.

Analysts had expected jobless claims to decline to 275,000.

Jobless claims remained below 300,000 the 53rd straight week. This threshold is associated with the strengthening of the labour market.

Continuing jobless claims declined by 32,000 to 2,225,000 in the week ended February 27.