US: Weekly Initial Jobless Claims rise to 198K vs. 196K expected

• Initial Jobless Claims in the US increased by 7,000 in the week ending March 25.
• US Dollar Index continues to push lower toward 102.00.

There were 198,000 initial jobless claims in the week ending March 25, the weekly data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) showed on Thursday. This print followed the previous week's print of 191,000 and came in worse than the market expectation of 196,000.

Further details of the publication revealed that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2% and the 4-week moving average was 198,250, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week's unrevised average.

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 18 was 1,689,000, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week's revised level," the DOL noted.

Market reaction

The US Dollar struggles to find demand after this report and the US Dollar Index was last seen losing 0.4% on the day at 102.20.