US weekly Initial Jobless Claims rise to 242K vs. 220K expected

• Initial Jobless Claims in the US rose by 17,000 in the week ending December 7.
• US Dollar Index stays in positive territory above 106.50.

There were 242,000 initial jobless claims in the week ending December 7, the weekly data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) showed on Thursday. This print followed the previous week's print of 225,000 (revised from 224,000) and came in worse than the market expectation of 220,000.

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 224,250, an increase of 5,750 from the previous week's revised average.

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending November 30 was 1,886,000, an increase of 15,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 1,871,000." the DOL further noted in its publication.

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index retreated from daily highs after this data and was last seen posting modest daily gains at 106.70.