• Initial Jobless Claims in the US decreased by 1,000 in the week ending March 18.
• US Dollar Index stays in negative territory below 102.50.

There were 191,000 initial jobless claims in the week ending March 18, the weekly data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) showed on Thursday. This print followed the previous week's print of 192,000 and came in better than the market expectation of 201,000.

Further details of the publication revealed that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2% and the 4-week moving average was 196,250, a decrease of 250 from the previous week's unrevised average.

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 11 was 1,694,000, an increase of 14,000 from the previous week's revised level," the DOL noted.

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index showed no immediate reaction to this report and was last seen losing 0.2% on the day at 102.30.