In the week ending January 17, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 307,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised level. Analysts were anticipating decrease to 301,000. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 316,000 to 317,000. The 4-week moving average was 306,500, an increase of 6,500 from the previous week's revised average.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.8 percent for the week ending January 10, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 10 was 2,443,000, an increase of 15,000 from the previous week's revised level.
Data did not have any major impact on the markets, with euro anticipating Mario Draghi's speech, while Sterling is currently being traded few points above 1.5180 level and Aussie around 0.8120 area.