Initial Jobless Claims went up more than anticipated last week

• Initial Jobless Claims rose by 221K from a week earlier.
• Continuing Jobless Claims rose by nearly 1.8M.

US citizens that applied for unemployment insurance benefits increased by 221K in the week ending March 30 according to the US Department of Labor (DoL) on Thursday. The prints came in just above initial estimates (214K) and matched previous weekly gain.

Further details of the publication revealed that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2% and the 4-week moving average stood at 212.25, a increase of 2.750K from the previous week’s revised average.

In addition, Continuing Claims increased by 8K to 1.791M in the week ended March 23.

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index (DXY) remains on the defensive and gradually approaches the key support at 104.00 region.