US: Weekly Initial Jobless Claims decline to 787K vs. 833K expected

• Weekly Initial Jobless Claims in the US fell by 19,000 last week.
• US Dollar Index continues to move sideways near 89.60.

There were 787,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits in the US during the week ending December 26, the data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) revealed on Thursday. This reading followed the previous print of 806,000 (revised from 803,000) and came in better than analysts’ estimate of 833,000.

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index largely ignored this report and was last seen losing 0.05% on a daily basis at 89.63.

Additional takeaways

“The 4-week moving average was 836,750, an increase of 17,750 from the previous week’s revised average.”

“The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.6% for the week ending December 19, unchanged from the previous week’s unrevised rate.”

“The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending December 19 was 5,219,000, a decrease of 103,000 from the previous week’s revised level.”