US Initial Jobless Claims increased to 206K last week

According to a report from the US Department of Labour (DOL) released on Thursday, the number of US citizens submitting new applications for unemployment insurance rose to 206K for the week ending August 29. The latest print came in above initial estimates (205K) and was lower than the previous week’s 204K (revised from 203K).

Additionally, the 4-week moving average increased by 1.5K to 207.25K vs. the previous week’s revised prints.

The report also indicated that Continuing Jobless Claims increased by 8K to 1.779M for the week ending August 22.

Market reaction

The Greenback trades with marked losses, retreating to the area of multi-day troughs near the 99.00 support level when gauged by the US Dollar Index (DXY). The Greenback’s strong decline appears to have found its catalyst on the severe pullback in USD/JPY in response to increasing speculation of a rate hike by the BoJ.