US: Weekly Initial Jobless Claims rise to 196K vs. 190K expected

• Initial Jobless Claims in the US increased by 13,000 in the week ending February 4.
• US Dollar Index stays deep in negative territory below 103.00.

There were 196,000 initial jobless claims in the week ending February 4, the weekly data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) showed on Thursday. This print followed the previous week's print of 183,000 and came in slightly worse than the market expectation of 190,000.

Further details of the publication revealed that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2% and the 4-week moving average was 189,250, a decrease of 2,500 from the previous week's unrevised average.

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 28 was 1,688,000, an increase of 38,000 from the previous week's revised level," the DOL noted.

Market reaction

US Dollar struggles to find demand after this data and the US Dollar Index was last seen losing 0.65% on the day at 102.80.