U.S. weekly jobless claims fall slightly below consensus expectations, suggest sound labor market conditions

U.S. weekly jobless claims dropped. In the week ended 23 March, the initial jobless claims fell 5k to 211k, coming in slightly below consensus expectations of 220k. Claims for the week ended 16 March were marked down 5k, to 216k. With today’s fall, the four-week moving average dropped to 217k from 221k previously. This average is slightly changed from year-ago levels, suggesting that the separation rate in the labor market continues to be close to historic lows.

The initial claims have moved down again after having risen slightly at the end of January in the wake of the partial government shutdown. Altogether, the initial claims data is seen as consistent with sound labor market conditions and further evidence that February’s abrupt deceleration in payroll gains is likely to prove transitory, noted Barclays in a research report.

Some back-up of claims to 2017 levels in the course of the year might be consistent with the outlook, which has economic activity slowing down with the waning of fiscal stimulus and as less accommodative monetary conditions weigh further on activity.

Meanwhile, continuing claims for the week ended 23 March rose 13k to 1.756 million, and the four-week moving average dropped to 1.751 million from 1.756 million in the prior week. The insured jobless rate remained stable at 1.2 percent.

State wise, changes were quite minor, with Oklahoma, South Carolina and California reporting modestly higher claims and Illinois, Oregon and Pennsylvania recording small declines.

At 16:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was bullish at 97.4848 more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex