In the week ending January 9, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 284,000, an increase of 7,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 277,000. Analysts were forecasting decrease to 275,000. The 4-week moving average was 278,750, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 275,750.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.7% for the week ending January 2, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 2 was 2,263,000, an increase of 29,000 from the previous week's revised level. The 4-week moving average was 2,224,250, an increase of 5,250 from the previous week's revised average.
Euro is currently being traded few points above 1.0850 level, Sterling is around 1.44 handle, while Aussie is around 0.6970 area.