US: Weekly Initial Jobless Claims declined to 194K vs. 200K expected

• Initial Jobless Claims in the US decreased by 1,000 in the week ending February 11.
• US Dollar Index stays in the upper half of its daily range.

There were 194,000 initial jobless claims in the week ending February 11, the weekly data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) showed on Thursday. This print followed the previous week's print of 195,000 and came in slightly better than the market expectation of 200,000.

Further details of the publication revealed that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2% and the 4-week moving average was 189,500, an increase of 500 from the previous week's revised average.

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending February 4 was 1,696,000, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week's revised level," the DOL noted.

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index clings to small daily gains but stays below 104.00 after this data.