Initial Jobless Claims comes in at 209K against 206K consensus - ForexCracked
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Event recap USD

Initial Jobless Claims comes in at 209K against 206K consensus

Published Aug 20, 13:00 UTC
Impact
6/ 10, medium
Market reaction Live, FXC rate feed
PairNowSince publish
EURUSD
USDJPY
Change measured from story publish at 13:00 UTC, from our own MT4 feed.

Initial Jobless Claims in the United States came in at 209K for the week ending August 15, 2026. This figure was slightly above the consensus estimate of 206K, representing a -0.5% surprise. The previous week’s reading was 209K.

The initial market reaction saw mixed movements across USD pairs. For example, EURUSD declined by 5.8 pips in the first five minutes, then recovered to a +2.8 pips gain after 15 minutes. USDJPY gained 11 pips in the first five minutes, then fell to a -2.3 pips loss after 15 minutes. Gold, XAUUSD, moved -70 pips in the first five minutes, then recovered to a +68 pips gain after 15 minutes. These measured moves so far are generally small when compared to typical historical reactions. For instance, EURUSD has a median 1-hour move of 10 pips after similar releases, and XAUUSD typically sees a median 1-hour move of 28 pips.

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