US: Weekly Initial Jobless Claims retreat to 406K vs. 425K expected

• Weekly Initial Jobless Claims in the US decreased by 38,000.
• US Dollar Index stays relatively quiet near 90.00.

There were 406,000 initial claims for unemployment benefits in the US during the week ending May 22, the data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) revealed on Thursday. This reading came in better than the market expectation of 425,000 and followed the previous print of 444,000.

Market reaction

This report was largely ignored by market participants and the US Dollar Index was last seen unchanged on the day at 90.03.

Additional takeaways

"The 4-week moving average was 458,750, a decrease of 46,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 504,750."

"The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6% for the week ending May 15, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week's unrevised rate."

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending May 15 was 3,642,000, a decrease of 96,000 from the previous week's revised level."