U.S. Jobless Claims Decline, Beating Expectations

The number of initial jobless claims in the United States for the week ending December 14 dropped to 220,000, outperforming expectations of 230,000 and down from the previous week's figure of 242,000. The four-week moving average of initial claims slightly increased to 225,500 compared to 224,250 in the prior week.Meanwhile, continuing jobless claims for the week ending December 7 stood at 1.874 million, slightly below the expected 1.89 million. The previous week’s figure was revised down from 1.886 million to 1.879 million, indicating a slight improvement in labor market conditions.