The U.S. economy added 178,000 net new jobs last month while the unemployment rate fell to 4.6%, the lowest since 2007, the Labor Department said Friday.
That's about all one needs to know about what the Fed may do at the next meeting of the FOMC in less than two weeks, December 13 and 14.
The economy seems to have picked up some confidence from the Trump election, and there's the possibility that the Fed may consider more rate hikes at a faster pace if economic conditions continue to improve (it's about time). what the Fed doesn't want to do is slam the door shut on any expansion by raising rates too quickly, but, after eight years of moribund global flim-flammery, it's apparent that the Fed doesn't want to do anything that might draw undue attention to itself.
As the year enters the final month of a very turbulent 2016, the signs are good that the eight years of non-recovery (except for stocks) may be about to usher in a new prosperity and at least a couple of good years for the US economy. While the rest of the world is in somewhat dubious condition, especially Japan and Europe, with their mountains of debt and negative interest rates, the US seems poised to again take the lead in economic matters.
It may take a while and it may take a pullback in stocks, which hasn't happened since '09, but things do seem to be on the improve.
Other than the Dow Industrials, stocks took a bit of a beating this week, ending on a down note as the Friday rally failed to maintain momentum. This could be the beginning of a Wall Street hissy fit over rate hikes. Then again, stocks are close to all-time highs.
Stay tuned and keep that power dry.
Closing Bell, Friday 12/02/16
Dow: 19,170.42, -21.51 (-0.11%)
NASDAQ: 5,255.65, +4.55 (0.09%)
S&P 500: 2,191.95, +0.87 (0.04%)
NYSE Composite: 10,841.64, +12.65 (0.12%)
For the week:
Dow: +18.28 (+0.10%)
NASDAQ: -143.27 (-2.65%)
S&P 500: -21.40 (-0.98%)
NYSE Composite: -38.98 (-0.36%)
Showing posts with label unemployment rate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unemployment rate. Show all posts
Friday, December 2, 2016
Friday, February 5, 2016
Jobs Number Baffles Market, But, The Market Is Saying SELL, SELL, SELL
With a January jobs number that was well short of expectations, at 151,000, the reaction from Wall Street was truly a puzzler. One could have easily gone with the "bad news is good news" meme, because if the economy is deteriorating (hint: it is) and layoffs are rampant (they are), then the Fed may not be able to justify any more increases in the federal funds rate this year.
That would be undeniably good for stocks.
It wasn't.
All the major indices took a nosedive right out of the gate, correctly predicted by the futures trading, which collapsed as soon as the number came out, an hour prior to the open.
So, what were the market mavens reading into the garbled mess that was the January Non-farm payrolls report?
Perhaps they looked at the wage growth, which was impressive, up a solid 1/2 percent, an unusually large jump, but probably the result of new legislation in a number of states which mandated higher minimum wages, which were where all the new jobs are - at the low end.
Or, the market might have reacted to the 4.9% unemployment rate, an unbelievable number, and again, a sign of a strengthening economy, which gives the Fed some latitude in raising rates. In any case, the odds of a rate increase later this year jumped on the news, sending stocks down the drain.
What traders see in the numbers may be far removed from what the numbers actually revealed, and the numbers themselves may not be very believable. After all, who actually believes that of those 151,000 jobs created, 58,000 of them were in retail? Remember, this was January, when retailers are normally laying people off after the holiday season. And this was no normal January either. Big chains, from Wal-Mart to Macy's to Sears were closing stores and letting people go. So, just who was hiring all these retail employees?
Then there were the 47,000 jobs created in the food service industry. Really? McDonald's, Applebee's, et. al., were hiring in January? The report also included a manufacturing sector increase of 29,000 jobs, which runs contrary to the recent ISM and PMI manufacturing jobs outlooks.
Money Daily warned yesterday that the BLS is famous for convoluted schemes to concoct bad figures and massive revisions, making the initial releases almost comical, and this one certainly fit the bill.
November and December were revised in opposite directions. The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for November was revised from +252,000 to +280,000, and the change for December was revised from +292,000 to
+262,000, for a net loss of 2,000.
We also noted that the number would not be influential to markets unless it was a big overshoot or a big miss. It was a big miss, with the consensus estimate at 190,000. Besides being down more than 100,000 from December - even after the revision - it's a massive miss, and one that the market apparently could not readily overlook.
Overall, the damage to equity markets was pretty severe. The NASDAQ closed at its lowest level since October, 2014, some 17 months hence.
For the week:
S&P 500: -60.19 (-3.10%)
Dow: -261.33 (-1.59%)
NASDAQ: -250.81 (-5.44%)
The day's rout:
S&P 500: 1,880.05, -35.40 (1.85%)
Dow: 16,204.97, -211.61 (1.29%)
NASDAQ: 4,363.14, -146.42 (3.25%)
Crude Oil 31.02 -2.21% Gold 1,173.70 +1.40% EUR/USD 1.1162 -0.34% 10-Yr Bond 1.85 -0.86% Corn 366.50 -0.54% Copper 2.09 -1.88% Silver 15.02 +1.14% Natural Gas 2.07 +4.72% Russell 2000 985.62 -2.87% VIX 23.38 +7.05% BATS 1000 20,306.40 -1.64% GBP/USD 1.4503 -0.50% USD/JPY 116.8300 -0.05%
That would be undeniably good for stocks.
It wasn't.
All the major indices took a nosedive right out of the gate, correctly predicted by the futures trading, which collapsed as soon as the number came out, an hour prior to the open.
So, what were the market mavens reading into the garbled mess that was the January Non-farm payrolls report?
Perhaps they looked at the wage growth, which was impressive, up a solid 1/2 percent, an unusually large jump, but probably the result of new legislation in a number of states which mandated higher minimum wages, which were where all the new jobs are - at the low end.
Or, the market might have reacted to the 4.9% unemployment rate, an unbelievable number, and again, a sign of a strengthening economy, which gives the Fed some latitude in raising rates. In any case, the odds of a rate increase later this year jumped on the news, sending stocks down the drain.
What traders see in the numbers may be far removed from what the numbers actually revealed, and the numbers themselves may not be very believable. After all, who actually believes that of those 151,000 jobs created, 58,000 of them were in retail? Remember, this was January, when retailers are normally laying people off after the holiday season. And this was no normal January either. Big chains, from Wal-Mart to Macy's to Sears were closing stores and letting people go. So, just who was hiring all these retail employees?
Then there were the 47,000 jobs created in the food service industry. Really? McDonald's, Applebee's, et. al., were hiring in January? The report also included a manufacturing sector increase of 29,000 jobs, which runs contrary to the recent ISM and PMI manufacturing jobs outlooks.
Money Daily warned yesterday that the BLS is famous for convoluted schemes to concoct bad figures and massive revisions, making the initial releases almost comical, and this one certainly fit the bill.
November and December were revised in opposite directions. The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for November was revised from +252,000 to +280,000, and the change for December was revised from +292,000 to
+262,000, for a net loss of 2,000.
We also noted that the number would not be influential to markets unless it was a big overshoot or a big miss. It was a big miss, with the consensus estimate at 190,000. Besides being down more than 100,000 from December - even after the revision - it's a massive miss, and one that the market apparently could not readily overlook.
Overall, the damage to equity markets was pretty severe. The NASDAQ closed at its lowest level since October, 2014, some 17 months hence.
For the week:
S&P 500: -60.19 (-3.10%)
Dow: -261.33 (-1.59%)
NASDAQ: -250.81 (-5.44%)
The day's rout:
S&P 500: 1,880.05, -35.40 (1.85%)
Dow: 16,204.97, -211.61 (1.29%)
NASDAQ: 4,363.14, -146.42 (3.25%)
Crude Oil 31.02 -2.21% Gold 1,173.70 +1.40% EUR/USD 1.1162 -0.34% 10-Yr Bond 1.85 -0.86% Corn 366.50 -0.54% Copper 2.09 -1.88% Silver 15.02 +1.14% Natural Gas 2.07 +4.72% Russell 2000 985.62 -2.87% VIX 23.38 +7.05% BATS 1000 20,306.40 -1.64% GBP/USD 1.4503 -0.50% USD/JPY 116.8300 -0.05%
Friday, November 8, 2013
Green Arrows for Stocks as Non-Farm Payrolls Surprise
As the work-week ended, everything was up, except, of course, gold and silver, because we just can't have those ancient relics of real money ruining the fiat-fest currently underway.
After the government reported October non-farm payrolls up a shocking 204,000 in October and revised August and September reports upward as well, futures slid, in sympathy with the idea that the Fed would - due to the "strong" jobs figure - reconsider its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying binge and begin to taper such efforts.
However, once the markets opened, good news was once again good news, and stocks staged a massive rally, erasing all of the prior day's losses on the major indices, sending the Dow Industrials to another record close.
Mortgage rates rocketed higher on the news, as did treasuries, the 10-year note ripping upward by 13 bips.
The logic may be a bit twisted - then again, what, concerning Wall Street and our current "crisis management" economy isn't? - but here's the take: Sure, the effects of the government shutdown the first two weeks of October were minimized, and the economy was creating jobs, but the unemployment rate actually rose - from 7.2 to 7.3% - due to a decline in the labor force participation rate, which has steadily trended downward for the past decade, making what looked, on the surface, as good news, actually bad news for the economy, which is good news for stocks because the Fed will just keep buying up treasuries and MBS, sloshing even more cheap money into the already liquidity-bloated system.
As usual, bankers and their kindred traders, hedgies and speculators were the main beneficiaries, after selling yesterday on a move that suggests the payroll data was privately leaked, were able to buy on the cheap Friday morning.
That's about the only analysis that makes any sense, though rational, logical arguments aren't always adequate predictors of market economics and trading patterns.
The guys with the inside scoop always do better than Mr. and Mrs. Average Joe and Jane. And they do it every day, whether the market is up or down, because they own the data.
Dow 15,761.78, +167.80 (1.08%)
Nasdaq 3,919.23, +61.90 (1.60%)
S&P 500 1,770.61, +23.46 (1.34%)
10-Yr Bond 2.75%, +0.13
NYSE Volume 3,770,251,500
Nasdaq Volume 1,934,757,875
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 3706-1971
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 231-99
WTI crude oil: 94.60, +0.40
Gold: 1,284.60, -23.90
Silver: 21.32, -0.34
Corn: 426.75, +6.25
After the government reported October non-farm payrolls up a shocking 204,000 in October and revised August and September reports upward as well, futures slid, in sympathy with the idea that the Fed would - due to the "strong" jobs figure - reconsider its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying binge and begin to taper such efforts.
However, once the markets opened, good news was once again good news, and stocks staged a massive rally, erasing all of the prior day's losses on the major indices, sending the Dow Industrials to another record close.
Mortgage rates rocketed higher on the news, as did treasuries, the 10-year note ripping upward by 13 bips.
The logic may be a bit twisted - then again, what, concerning Wall Street and our current "crisis management" economy isn't? - but here's the take: Sure, the effects of the government shutdown the first two weeks of October were minimized, and the economy was creating jobs, but the unemployment rate actually rose - from 7.2 to 7.3% - due to a decline in the labor force participation rate, which has steadily trended downward for the past decade, making what looked, on the surface, as good news, actually bad news for the economy, which is good news for stocks because the Fed will just keep buying up treasuries and MBS, sloshing even more cheap money into the already liquidity-bloated system.
As usual, bankers and their kindred traders, hedgies and speculators were the main beneficiaries, after selling yesterday on a move that suggests the payroll data was privately leaked, were able to buy on the cheap Friday morning.
That's about the only analysis that makes any sense, though rational, logical arguments aren't always adequate predictors of market economics and trading patterns.
The guys with the inside scoop always do better than Mr. and Mrs. Average Joe and Jane. And they do it every day, whether the market is up or down, because they own the data.
Dow 15,761.78, +167.80 (1.08%)
Nasdaq 3,919.23, +61.90 (1.60%)
S&P 500 1,770.61, +23.46 (1.34%)
10-Yr Bond 2.75%, +0.13
NYSE Volume 3,770,251,500
Nasdaq Volume 1,934,757,875
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 3706-1971
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 231-99
WTI crude oil: 94.60, +0.40
Gold: 1,284.60, -23.90
Silver: 21.32, -0.34
Corn: 426.75, +6.25
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Bernanke Drops Unemployment Bomb; Markets Get Cranky
After John Boehner chastised President Obama again from the floor of the House of Representatives in the morning, the markets got what they were so eagerly anticipating and pricing in for the last two weeks: Ben Bernanke's unveiling of QE4, the promise by the Federal Reserve to purchase an additional $45 billion in long-dated treasuries each month, commencing with the wind-down of a similar program known as "Operation Twist."
This new monetizing of government debt is in addition to the fed's commitment to continued purchasing agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $40 billion per month for the foreseeable future, which translates roughly into "forever, or until the fiat monetary system collapses."
What the market didn't expect was the Fed's statement tying interest rates to the unemployment rate. In the FOMC statement issued shortly after noon and prior to Bernanke's 2:00 pm ET press conference, the Fed announced, "the Committee decided to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and currently anticipates that this exceptionally low range for the federal funds rate will be appropriate at least as long as the unemployment rate remains above 6-1/2 percent, inflation between one and two years ahead is projected to be no more than a half percentage point above the Committee’s 2 percent longer-run goal, and longer-term inflation expectations continue to be well anchored."
With inflation fairly tame and trending toward dis-inflation on the retail level, the Fed has finally embarked upon a robotic-like exit strategy, though with existential caveats and various loopholes and escape clauses.
After digesting the news, stocks were initially bought up, but, during the press conference, began to slip, finally ending the day with no gains.
While on the one hand the Fed is keeping the monetary floodgates wide open, they are anticipating economic recovery, though even the most ardent bulls don't see the official unemployment rate (U3) falling below 6.5% for at least another year. It currently stands at 7.7%, though that figure is largely due to the decline in the labor participation rate.
With baby boomers retiring at an estimated rate of 10,000 per day - many taking the offer of smaller benefits at age 62 - the labor market is in a state of generational flux unlike any seen in modern times, so there's literally no telling when unemployment might fall below the Fed's threshold level, if at all.
One thing's for certain: if the economy suddenly finds its legs and springs into a real recovery with job creation and rising GDP, Wall Street will be offended because the free money spigots will be turned off or borrowing costs will be significantly increased.
It's a double-edged sword of competitiveness vs. financial repression being played by Wall Street bankers against the population at large. Higher interest rates would tamp down rampant speculation and reverse the galloping higher market trends. In fact, the mere hint from the Fed that interest rates might rise already has seen some effect.
Withe the final Fed meeting of the year out of the way, all eyes will be on the Speaker and the President as they race against time to find a solution to their wide differences to solving the fiscal mess they've created (with ample assistance from Wall Street and the 2008 crash).
Time is running short on the politicians and Wall Street may not be so easily amused over the next few weeks.
Dow 13,245.45, -2.99 (0.02%)
NASDAQ 3,013.81, -8.49 (0.28%)
S&P 500 1,428.48, +0.64 (0.04%)
NYSE Composite 8,380.88, +14.40 (0.17%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,755,775,625
NYSE Volume 3,678,721,000
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 2467-3083
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 204-45
WTI crude oil: 86.77, +0.98
Gold: 1,717.90, +8.30
Silver: 33.78, +0.765
This new monetizing of government debt is in addition to the fed's commitment to continued purchasing agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $40 billion per month for the foreseeable future, which translates roughly into "forever, or until the fiat monetary system collapses."
What the market didn't expect was the Fed's statement tying interest rates to the unemployment rate. In the FOMC statement issued shortly after noon and prior to Bernanke's 2:00 pm ET press conference, the Fed announced, "the Committee decided to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and currently anticipates that this exceptionally low range for the federal funds rate will be appropriate at least as long as the unemployment rate remains above 6-1/2 percent, inflation between one and two years ahead is projected to be no more than a half percentage point above the Committee’s 2 percent longer-run goal, and longer-term inflation expectations continue to be well anchored."
With inflation fairly tame and trending toward dis-inflation on the retail level, the Fed has finally embarked upon a robotic-like exit strategy, though with existential caveats and various loopholes and escape clauses.
After digesting the news, stocks were initially bought up, but, during the press conference, began to slip, finally ending the day with no gains.
While on the one hand the Fed is keeping the monetary floodgates wide open, they are anticipating economic recovery, though even the most ardent bulls don't see the official unemployment rate (U3) falling below 6.5% for at least another year. It currently stands at 7.7%, though that figure is largely due to the decline in the labor participation rate.
With baby boomers retiring at an estimated rate of 10,000 per day - many taking the offer of smaller benefits at age 62 - the labor market is in a state of generational flux unlike any seen in modern times, so there's literally no telling when unemployment might fall below the Fed's threshold level, if at all.
One thing's for certain: if the economy suddenly finds its legs and springs into a real recovery with job creation and rising GDP, Wall Street will be offended because the free money spigots will be turned off or borrowing costs will be significantly increased.
It's a double-edged sword of competitiveness vs. financial repression being played by Wall Street bankers against the population at large. Higher interest rates would tamp down rampant speculation and reverse the galloping higher market trends. In fact, the mere hint from the Fed that interest rates might rise already has seen some effect.
Withe the final Fed meeting of the year out of the way, all eyes will be on the Speaker and the President as they race against time to find a solution to their wide differences to solving the fiscal mess they've created (with ample assistance from Wall Street and the 2008 crash).
Time is running short on the politicians and Wall Street may not be so easily amused over the next few weeks.
Dow 13,245.45, -2.99 (0.02%)
NASDAQ 3,013.81, -8.49 (0.28%)
S&P 500 1,428.48, +0.64 (0.04%)
NYSE Composite 8,380.88, +14.40 (0.17%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,755,775,625
NYSE Volume 3,678,721,000
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 2467-3083
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 204-45
WTI crude oil: 86.77, +0.98
Gold: 1,717.90, +8.30
Silver: 33.78, +0.765
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