Initial Jobless Claims comes in at 197K against 200K consensus

Initial Jobless Claims in the United States came in at 197K for the week ending October 8, 2026. This figure was lower than the consensus expectation of 200K, representing a surprise of -1.5% against the forecast. The actual print matched the previous week’s revised figure of 197K.

Following the release, the U.S. Dollar showed a generally firmer tone against major currencies over the initial 15 minutes. EURUSD declined by 11 pips, GBPUSD fell by 9.0 pips, and AUDUSD was down 4.3 pips. USDJPY rose by 4.2 pips, and USDCAD gained 8.5 pips. Gold, XAUUSD, saw a notable drop of 119 pips. These initial moves are generally larger than the median 1-hour moves observed after past releases for some pairs, such as EURUSD’s median of 10 pips and XAUUSD’s median of 29 pips. However, for other pairs like GBPUSD, the 9.0 pip move is still below its median 1-hour move of 13 pips.