New Delhi, July 24 -- WASHINGTON - American workers filed just 187,000 initial jobless claims last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, the lowest weekly figure since November 1969 and a reading that arrived without warning in an economy navigating oil at $100 a barrel, a technology-sector selloff, and the weakest monthly payrolls gain in years.

The number fell from the prior week's revised 218,000, a drop most forecasting firms had not anticipated. The consensus estimate stood at 215,000. The gap between projection and result was the widest for this indicator in recent memory, sending Treasury yields higher and forcing traders to revise rate-cut expectations further into 2027.

The 57-year low does not resolve what has become a...