News Bites
U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Holding Steady
(Kitco News) - The U.S. Labor market continues to be the bright as the Labor Department reported in line jobless claims.
Initial weekly U.S. jobless claims rose by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 217,000 in the week to Saturday, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Consensus expectations compiled by various news organizations had called for initial claims to be around 215,000. The government revised last week’s data up by 1,000 jobs to 216,000.
Meanwhile, the four-week moving average for new claims – often viewed as a more reliable measure of the labor market since it smoothens out week-to-week volatility – increased by 1,500 claims to 216,250.
Continuing jobless claims, the number of people already receiving benefits and reported with a one-week delay, dropped by 39,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.66 million during the week ending Aug. 24, the government said.
The better-than-expected labor market data is having little impact on gold prices, which is under pressure due to improving investor risk sentiment in the marketplace.
