US: Weekly Initial Jobless Claims decline to 473K vs. 490K expected

• Weekly Initial Jobless Claims in the US decreased by 34,000.
• US Dollar Index continues to fluctuate below 91.00.

There were 473,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits in the US during the week ending May 8, the data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) revealed on Thursday. This reading came in better than the market expectation of 490,000 and followed the previous print of 507,000 (revised from 498,000).

Market reaction

This report doesn't seem to be having a significant impact on the USD's performance against its rivals. As of writing, the US Dollar Index was virtually unchanged on the day at 90.75.

Additional takeaways

"The 4-week moving average was 534,000, a decrease of 28,250 from the previous week's revised average."

"The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6% for the week ending May 1, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week's revised rate."

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending May 1 was 3,655,000, a decrease of 45,000 from the previous week's revised level."