Weekly US jobless claims fall more than expected

Initial jobless claims in the US declined more sharply than anticipated over the week covering the 4 July holiday.

According to the Department of Labor, unemployment claims dropped by 13,000 over the week ending on 6 July to reach 209,000.

Economists had instead penciled-in a dip to 220,000.

The four-week moving average, which aims to smoothe out the volatility in the data from one week to the next, fell by a big 3,250 to 219,250.

Meanwhile, secondary unemployment claims, which tracks those which are not being filed for the first time and cover the week ending on 29 June, rose by 27,000 to 1.723m.