US: Weekly Initial Jobless Claims rise to 230K as expected

• Initial Jobless Claims in the US increased by 4,000 in the week ending December 3.
• US Dollar Index stays in negative territory near 105.00.

There were 230,000 initial jobless claims in the week ending December 3, the weekly data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) showed on Thursday. This print followed the previous week's print of 226,000 (revised from 225,000) and came in line with the market expectation.

Further details of the publication revealed that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2% and the 4-week moving average was 230,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's revised average.

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending November 26 was 1,671,000, an increase of 62,000 from the previous week's revised level," the DOL noted in its publication.

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index edged slightly lower after this report and was last seen losing 0.18% on the day at 104.98.