The U.S. Labor Department released its jobless claims figures on Thursday. The number of initial jobless claims in the week ending September 19 in the U.S. rose by 3,000 to 267,000 from 264,000 in the previous week. Analysts had expected the initial jobless claims to increase to 271,000.

Jobless claims remained below 300,000 the 29th straight week. This threshold is associated with the strengthening of the labour market.

Continuing jobless claims decreased by 1,000 to 2,242,000 in the week ended September 12.