US: Initial Jobless Claims kept the firm tone last week

• Initial Jobless Claims rose by 202K in the first week of the year.
• The US labour market keeps signalling a tight stance.

US citizens that applied for unemployment insurance benefits increased by 202K in the week ending January 6, showed the US Department of Labor (DOL) on Thursday. The reading came in short of market consensus and follows a 203K gain in the previous week.

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 207.75K, a decrease of 250 from the previous week's revised average.

In addition, Continuing Claims dropped by 34K to 1.834M in the week ended December 30.

Market reaction

The US Dollar Index rose to a new intraday high past 102.60 soon in the wake of higher-than-expected US inflation figures measured by the CPI for the month of December (+3.4% YoY).