US: Weekly Initial Jobless Claims rise to 744K vs. 680K expected

• Weekly Initial Jobless Claims in the US increased by 16,000.
• US Dollar Index stays in the negative territory below 92.30.

There were 744,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits in the US during the week ending April 3, the data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) revealed on Thursday. This reading followed the previous print of 728,000 (revised from 719,000) and came in worse than the market expectation of 680,000.

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index showed no immediate reaction to this report and was last seen losing 0.2% on the day at 92.23.

Additional takeaways

“The 4-week moving average was 723,750, an increase of 2,500 from the previous week’s revised average.”

“The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6% for the week ending March 27.”

“The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 27 was 3,734,000, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week’s revised level.”