Weekly US jobless claims tick lower

Initial jobless claims ticked lower last week.

During the week ending on 8 July, initial weekly unemployment claims slipped by 3,000 to 247,000, according to the Department of Labor.

Economists had forecast a reading of 245,000.

The four-week moving average, which aims to smoothe out the variations in the data from one week to the next, rose by 2,250 to 245,750.

Secondary unemployment claims, those which are not filed for the first time and referencing the week ending on 1 July fell by 20,000 to 1.945m.