US: Weekly Initial Jobless Claims decline to 186K vs. 205K expected

• Initial Jobless Claims in the US decreased by 6,000 in the week ending January 21.
• US Dollar Index stays slightly below 102.00 after the data.

There were 186,000 initial jobless claims in the week ending January 21, the weekly data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) showed on Thursday. This print followed the previous week's print of 192,000 (revised from 190,000) and came in better than the market expectation of 205,000.

Further details of the publication revealed that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2% and the 4-week moving average was 197,500, a decrease of 9,250 from the previous week's revised average.

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 14 was 1,675,000, an increase of 20,000 from the previous week's revised level," the DOL noted.

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index struggles to gain traction despite the upbeat data and was last seen posting small daily gains at 101.75.