US: Weekly Initial Jobless Claims decline to 223K vs. 230K expected

• Weekly Initial Jobless Claims in US declined by 16,000.
• US Dollar Index pushes higher toward 96.00 in the early American session.

There were 223,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits in the US during the week ending February 5, the data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) revealed on Thursday. This reading came in better than the market expectation of 230,000.

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index pushes higher toward 96.00 in the early American session but the greenback seems to be receiving a boost from the hot inflation data.

Additional takeaways

"The 4-week moving average was 253,250, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised average."

"The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2% for the week ending January 29, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate."

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 29 was 1,621,000, unchanged from the previous week's revised level."