The U.S. Labor Department released its jobless claims figures on Thursday. The number of initial jobless claims in the week ending June 04 in the U.S. decreased by 4,000 to 264,000 from 268,000 in the previous week. The previous week's figure was revised up from 267,000.

Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise to 270,000.

Jobless claims remained below 300,000 the 66th straight week. This threshold is associated with the strengthening of the labour market.

Continuing jobless claims declined by 77,000 to 2,095,000 in the week ended May 28. It was the lowest level since October 2000.