A report released by the Labor Department on Thursday showed first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell by more than expected in the week ended May 18th.

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims slid to 215,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 223,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 220,000 from the 222,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Meanwhile, the report said the less volatile four-week moving average crept up to 219,750, an increase of 1,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 218,000.

At 10 am ET, the Commerce Department is due to release its report on new home sales in the month of April. Economists expect new home sales to pull back by 1.9 percent to an annual rate of 680,000 in April after soaring by 8.8 percent to a rate of 693,000 in March.

The Treasury Department is scheduled to announce the details of this month’s auctions of two-year, five-year and seven-year notes at 1 pm ET.

At 3 pm ET, Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic is due to participate in a virtual question-and-answer session with students in MBA macroeconomic class at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.