November 30, 2021 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
Right now the stock and bond markets can’t decide if the Omicron Variant will crush the global economy badly enough to lead the Federal Reserve to delay its timetable for raising interest rates or if the U.S. economy is so strong and inflation so persistent that Jerome Powell and company will be pushed to accelerate the Fed’s tightening. Which makes Friday’s jobs report for November even more important than usual since it might provide the tipping data to send the Fed’s decision one way or the other. Right now economists at Argus forecast that the economy added 550,000 new jobs in November. That would be an increase from the 531,000 jobs created in October and from the 32,000 created in August.
November 4, 2021 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
New claims for unemployment in regular state programs well for the week ended October 30 to a seasonally adjusted 269,000.
August 8, 2021 | Daily JAM |
On Friday, after the strong July jobs report, stocks said that the “re-opening” economy is going strong. That the Federal Reserve would see the July jobs report as a reason to raise interest rates. That inflation is likely to strengthen. On those conclusions the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose (7 basis points) to 1.30%. Bank stocks, which move up when interest rates do, climbed. “Re-opening” stocks such as Macy’s (M) gained with Macy’s shares up 6.24% on the day. Defensive stocks such as Chipotle (CMG), and PetMed Express (PETS) fell 0.68% and 0.82%, respectively. And tech stocks, the recent favorite sector when the economy looks shaky, fell with the NASDAQ 100 down 0.48%. What we’ll see next week if whether these convictions hold–and whether or not investors start to question Friday’s certainty.
June 30, 2021 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
Private payrolls rose more than expected in June, ADP reported this morning, with a gain of 692,000 jobs. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg were looking for a gain of 600,000 jobs. The figure was a drop from the 886,000 jobs aded by private employers in May. The biggest gains came, again, in the service sector.
June 3, 2021 | Daily JAM, Short Term |
Employment numbers today suggest that we could get a Goldilocks May job report tomorrow. The ADP Research employment survey said U.S. private employers added 742,000 jobs in May. That’s the most in seven months. But it is slightly below the 850,000 projected by economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
June 1, 2021 | Daily JAM, Short Term |
The last time the government reported monthly jobs numbers, investors and traders faced a big surprise. In April the U.S. economy added only 266,000 jobs. That was well below expectations for the addition of 1 million jobs in the month. Waiting for the May jobs report before the open on Friday Wall Street is hoping for a return to something like the run of months before April of 900,000+ plus. I suspect that Wall Street economists would be happy with any number strong enough to suggest that the April plunge was a fluke. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg are projecting that the economy added 650,000 jobs in May. But after last month’s failure to predict the drop fresh in investors’ minds, no one is rushing to stake out a position either long or short ahead of the data. Which is one reason why the Standard & Poor’s 500 fell by all of 0.05% today
May 9, 2021 | Daily JAM |
This week Wall Street analysts and economists, professional money managers, and individual investors and traders will “re-calculate” their expectations about the economy for the remainder of 2021. Friday’s surprisingly small addition of 266,000 jobs to the U.S. economy–instead of the 1 million projected by economists–will lead to a revisions in assumptions about inflation, interest rates, and economic growth for the rest of 2021.
May 7, 2021 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
The U.S. economy added just 266,000 jobs in April, far fewer than the 1 million economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected, the Labor Department reported this morning. The unemployment rate rose to 6.1% in April from 6.0% in March
May 5, 2021 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
U.S. private employers in April added the most jobs in seven months, according to data from the ADP Research Institute released today. Company payrolls rose by 743,000 in the month. That’s a big gain from the upwardly revised 565,000 gain in March. And it’s the biggest money gain in jobs in seven months. That increases worries that Friday’s April jobs report from the Commerce Department will show a gain for the month of nearly 1 million new jobs. Good news for workers, of course, but that would increase fears in the financial markets that we’re seeing the kind of sustained, multi-month gains in jobs that the Federal Reserve has said it needs to see before it begins to raise interest rates.
April 22, 2021 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
Americans filed 547,000 first-time unemployment claims last week, the Labor Department reported. That marked a pandemic low for a second week in a row.
March 3, 2021 | Daily JAM |
Private employers added 117,000 jobs in February, according to today’s National Employment Report from ADP. The ADP report leads into Friday’s Labor Department report on the job market. The Labor Department report will include jobs gains or losses in the public sector that has been hit hard by the pandemic. Economists had projected that the ADP survey would show private payrolls adding 165,000 jobs in February.
February 5, 2021 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
The U.S. economy gave new signs that the recovery has stalled. Today, February 5, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. economy added just 49,000 jobs in January. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected the economy to add 100,000 jobs in the month. The government statisticians also revised downward the jobs performance of the economy November and December. In December the revised figures say, the economy lost 227,000 jobs rather than the initially reported 140,000. In November the economy created 72,000 fewer jobs than first reported.
