US: Weekly Initial Jobless Claims decline to 232K vs. 248K expected

• Initial Jobless Claims fell by 5,000 in the week ending August 27.
• US Dollar Index continues to push higher toward 109.50.

There were 232,000 initial jobless claims in the week ending August 27, the weekly data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) showed on Thursday. This print followed the previous week's print of 237,000 (revised from 243,000) and came in better than the market expectation of 248,000.

Further details of the publication revealed that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1% and the 4-week moving average was 241,500, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's unrevised average.

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending August 20 was 1,438,000, an increase of 26,000 from the previous week's revised level," the DOL said.

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index extended its rally after this data and was last seen rising 0.6% on the day at 109.32.