• Initial Jobless Claims in the US decreased by 1,000 in the first week of 2023.
• US Dollar Index stays deep in negative territory below 103.00.

There were 205,000 initial jobless claims in the week ending January 7, the weekly data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) showed on Thursday. This print followed the previous week's print of 206,000 and came in better than the market expectation of 215,000.

Further details of the publication revealed that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.1% and the 4-week moving average was 212,500, a decrease of 1,750 from the previous week's revised average.

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending December 31 was 1,634,000, a decrease of 63,000 from the previous week's revised level," the DOL noted.

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index stays deep in negative territory below 103.00 after this data but the US Dollar weakness seems to have been caused by the soft inflation data rather than jobless claims.