U.S. 241,000 new claims for unemployment benefits last week...below expectations

The U.S. Labor Department said last week that there were 24,000 new unemployment claims, up 19,000 from a week ago.

This is less than the 260,000 expert projections compiled by Dow Jones.

The number of "continued unemployment" claims filed for unemployment benefits for more than two weeks was 1.867 million weekly between Sept. 29 and Oct. 5, up 9,000 from the previous week.

Wall Street is paying close attention to the U.S. job market trends amid concerns that the U.S. economy is cooling down quickly.