The U.S. Labor Department released its jobless claims figures on Thursday. The number of initial jobless claims in the week ending May 14 in the U.S. decreased by 16,000 to 278,000 from 295,000 in the previous week. Analysts had expected jobless claims to decline to 275,000.

Jobless claims remained below 300,000 the 63rd straight week. This threshold is associated with the strengthening of the labour market.

Continuing jobless claims declined by 13,000 to 2,152,000 in the week ended May 07.