© Reuters. U.S. jobless claims fall by 26,000 to 255,000, lowest level since 1973

Investing.com - The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell to the lowest level since November 1973, boosting optimism over the health of the economy and supporting the case for a U.S. interest rate hike this year, official data showed on Thursday.

In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for in the week ending July 18 fell by 26,000 to a seasonally adjusted 255,000 from the previous week’s total of 281,000. Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to fall by 1,000 to 280,000 last week.

First-time jobless claims have held below the 300,000-level for 20 consecutive weeks, which is usually associated with a firming labor market.

in the week ended July 11 declined to 2.207 million from 2.216 million in the preceding week. Analysts had expected continuing claims to rise to 2.225 million.

The was 278,750, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week’s total of 282,500. The monthly average is seen as a more accurate gauge of labor trends because it reduces volatility in the week-to-week data.

was trading at 1.0995 from around 1.1014 ahead of the release of the data, was at 1.5598 from 1.5607 earlier, while was at 123.94 from 123.84 earlier.

The , which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 97.19, compared to 97.04 ahead of the report.

Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a mixed open. The pointed to a loss of 0.1%, the tacked on 0.1%, while the advanced 0.1%.

Elsewhere, in the commodities market, traded at $1,097.70 a troy ounce, compared to $1,098.70 ahead of the data, while traded at $49.37 a barrel from $49.50 earlier.