The Labor Department released a report on Thursday unexpectedly showing a slight drop in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended February 18th.
The report said initial jobless claims edged down to 192,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised level of 195,000.
The dip surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to inch up to 200,000 from the 194,000 originally reported for the previous week.
Meanwhile, the report said the less volatile four-week moving average crept up to 191,250, an increase of 1,500 from the previous week's revised average of 189,750.
