US weekly Initial Jobless Claims decline to 201K vs. 218K expected

• Initial Jobless Claims in the US declined by 10,000 in the week ending January 4.
• US Dollar Index clings to daily gains above 109.00 after the data.

There were 201,000 initial jobless claims in the week ending January 4, the weekly data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) showed on Wednesday. This print followed the previous week's print of 211,000 and came in better than the market expectation of 218,000.

Further details of the publication revealed that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2%.

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending December 28 was 1,867,000, an increase of 33,000 from the previous week's revised level," the DOL noted in its press release. "The 4-week moving average was 1,865,500, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised average."

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index stays in positive territory after the data and was last seen rising 0.5% on the day at 109.20.