US: Initial Jobless Claims increased less than expected last week

• Initial Jobless Claims rose by 215K vs. the previous week.
• Continuing Jobless Claims rose by almost 1.8M.

US citizens that applied for unemployment insurance benefits increased by 215K in the week ending May 18 according to the US Department of Labor (DoL) on Thursday. The prints came in short of initial estimates (220K) and below the previous weekly gain of 223K (revised from 232K).

Further details of the publication revealed that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2% and the 4-week moving average stood at 219.75, an increase of 1.75K from the previous week's revised average.

In addition, Continuing Claims increased by 8K to 1.794M in the week ended May 11.

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index (DXY) maintains its negative bias so far on Thursday, coming under pressure after hitting multi-day peaks near the 105.00 barrier in the previous session. The corrective decline in the Greenback also comes amidst a mixed performance of US yields across the curve.