The U.S. Labor Department released its jobless claims figures on Thursday. The number of initial jobless claims in the week ending May 07 in the U.S. increased by 20,000 to 294,000 from 274,000 in the previous week. Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise to 270,000.

Jobless claims remained below 300,000 the 62nd straight week. This threshold is associated with the strengthening of the labour market.

Continuing jobless claims climbed by 37,000 to 2,161,000 in the week ended April 30.