US: Weekly Initial Jobless Claims decline to 256K vs. 253K expected

• Initial Jobless Claims fell by 5,000 in the week ending July 16.
• US Dollar Index struggles to preserve its bullish momentum.

There were 256,000 initial jobless claims in the week ending July 23, the weekly data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) showed on Thursday. This print followed the previous week's print of 261,000 and came in worse than the market expectation of 253,000.

Further details of the publication revealed that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1% and the 4-week moving average was 249,250, an increase of 6,250 from the previous week's revised average.

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending July 16 was 1,359,000, a decrease of 25,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 1,384,000," the DOL added.

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index continues to edge lower from daily highs and was last seen posting small gains at 106.55.