First-time filings dropped to 386,000 last week from 390,000.
US stock index futures rose as the world's biggest economy grew at a stronger-than-expected pace, and first-time filings for jobless benefits declined.
Employment growth gained steam in February, factory activity touched a one-and-a-half-year high and first-time filings for jobless benefits have increased just modestly so far in March.
Last week's drop in claims exceeded economists' expectations for only a 6,000 decline and pushed first-time filings down to the lower end of their range for this year.
First-time filings for unemployment benefits fell 23,000, to 382,000, in the week ended Saturday from an upwardly revised 405,000 in the previous week, the Labor Department said.
The index's 86 percent increase from a 12-year low on March 9, 2009, is the biggest for a comparable time period since 1955, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S.& P. The Labor Department said first-time filings for unemployment insurance decreased by 34,000 to 388,000 in the week ended Dec. 25, compared with the median forecast of 415,000 in a Bloomberg News survey.
First-time filings for unemployment benefits rose 26,000, to 436,000 in the week ending November 27.
Developers made initial filings for about 7,600 units, and for the first time in four years there were filings for more units in Brooklyn than Manhattan, according to the listings from the attorney general.
The number of refund claims being settled "now exceeds new filings for the first time in more than a decade," he said.
The court filings mark the first time the nephews of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, have commented substantively on their arrests in November and the US investigation.
But the market also advanced on a better-than-expected report on first-time jobless filings and a jump in share prices for the retail stores that topped forecasts for June sales.
