"It's reassuring. After the December jobs report everybody was pretty nervous. This is a number that makes it more likely December was a fluke."
- William Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services Inc.
The Euro benefited not only from stronger-than-expected data from Europe on Thursday, but also climbed higher on the back of weak manufacturing report, while U.S. jobless claims report provided no surprises. By the time a report from the Labor Department was out, the greenback depreciated more than 0.70% against the single currency, falling to 1.3644.
It seems that investors are loosing their interest in weekly unemployment claims data as with each week markets' reaction is getting more and more moderate. The main reason is that the indicator has been hovering around the lowest level in more than a month for a couple of weeks already. This time the Labor Department said jobless claims advanced 1,000 to 326,000 in the week ended January 18, while the consensus forecast stood for a 330,000 figure. The less-volatile four-week moving average turned lower to 331,500, while over the comparable survey week a month earlier the average stood at 343,750.
Despite a disastrous payroll report for December, the number of jobless claims is suggesting the labour market is on the mend, explaining why the Fed decided to begin trimming down its stimulus at their last meeting.
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