US: More than 1 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week

• Initial Jobless Claims in US rose by 98,000 last week.
• US Dollar Index stays calm near 93.00 ahead of FOMC Chairman Powell's speech.

There were 1,006,000 Initial Claims for unemployment benefits in the US during the week ending August 22nd, the data published by the US Department of Labor (DOL) revealed on Thursday.

This reading followed last week's print of 1,104,000 (revised from 1,106,000) and came in slightly worse than the market expectation of 1,000,000.

Market reaction

Investors don't seem to be paying any attention to these figures ahead of FOMC Chairman Jerome Powell's critical speech. As of writing, the US Dollar Index was up 0.17% on the day at 93.05.

Additional takeaways

"The 4-week moving average was 1,068,000, a decrease of 107,250 from the previous week's revised average."

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending August 15 was 14,535,000, a decrease of 223,000 from the previous week's revised level."