The U.S. Labor Department released its jobless claims figures on Thursday. The number of initial jobless claims in the week ending September 26 in the U.S. rose by 10,000 to 277,000 from 267,000 in the previous week. Analysts had expected the initial jobless claims to increase to 270,000.

Jobless claims remained below 300,000 the 30th straight week. This threshold is associated with the strengthening of the labour market.

Continuing jobless claims decreased by 53,000 to 2,191,000 in the week ended September 19. It was the lowest level since November 2000.