The U.S. Labor Department released its jobless claims figures on Thursday. The number of initial jobless claims in the week ending October 24 in the U.S. rose by 1,000 to 260,000 from 259,000 in the previous week.

Analysts had expected the initial jobless claims to increase to 263,000.

Jobless claims remained below 300,000 the 34th straight week. This threshold is associated with the strengthening of the labour market.

Continuing jobless claims decreased by 37,000 to 2,144,000 in the week ended October 17. It was the lowest level since November 2000.