Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell more than expected, fuelling optimism over the strength of the labor market, official data showed on Thursday. In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending August 2 decreased by 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 289,000 from the previous week’s total of 303,000. Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 2,000 to 305,000 last week. Continuing jobless claims in the week ended July 26 fell to 2.518 million from 2.542 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to fall to 2.512 million. The four-week moving average was 293,500, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week’s total of 297,500. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data. Following the release of the data, the U.S. dollar held on to gains against the euro, with EUR/USD shedding 0.06% to trade at 1.3374. Meanwhile, U.S. equity markets pointed to a higher open. The Dow indicated a gain of 0.2%, the S&P 500 pointed to a rise of 0.2%, while the Nasdaq 100 indicated an increase of 0.1%.

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