US: Weekly Initial Jobless Claims decline to 192K vs. 200K expected

• Initial Jobless Claims in the US decreased by 3,000 in the week ending February 18.
• US Dollar Index stays in positive territory above 104.50.

There were 192,000 initial jobless claims in the week ending February 18, 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 (revised from 194,000) 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 1.1% and the 4-week moving average was 191,250, an increase of 1,500 from the previous week's revised average.

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending February 11 was 1,654,000, a decrease of 37,000 from the previous week's revised level," the DOL noted.

Market reaction

The US Dollar stays resilient against its rivals after this data with the US Dollar Index clinging to modest daily gains at around 104.60.