The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the US eased by 2,000 to 210,000 over the week ending March 23rd, beating market expectations of 215,000 to extend the momentum of relatively low claim counts since the start of February. In the meantime, continuing claims rose by 24,000 to 1,819,000 in the earlier week, offsetting the downward revision from earlier in March to reach its highest since mid-January.