July 1, 2024 | Daily JAM, Short Term |
There won’t be any stock market reaction to the June jobs report due on Friday That’s because the market closes early on July 3 and stays closed for Friday’s Fourth of July holiday. And not because the report isn’t important as the Federal Reserve continues its search for evidence that the labor market is cooling enough to send inflammation down to the bank’s 2% target. The June report is expected to show that the economy added 188,000 jobs in June.
June 7, 2024 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing, Short Term |
Employers added 272,000 jobs in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning. That number was well above the 185,000n projected by economists and even higher above the 175,000 in the April report. The financial markets were disappointed with the news since it pushed out the schedule for an initial interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve.A cut a the July 31 Fed meting has now been priced out by the market. The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.14% today and the NASDAQ Composite dropped 0.23%
March 21, 2024 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 210,000 for the week ended March 16, the Labor Department reported today, March 21. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 215,000 claims in the latest week. Continuing claims for unemployment increased 4,000 to 1.807 million during the week ending March 9, the report on Thursday showed. The Federal Reserve has been looking for signs that the labor market is weakening before raising interest rates. So far the evidence is inconclusive.
January 5, 2024 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
The U.S. economy added 216,000 jobs in December, up from 173,000 the previous month. That was a bg surprise to Wall Street. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected had added 175,000 jobs . The unemployment rate held steady at 3.7% for the month from November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to tick higher to 3.8%. The the BLS revised previous reports of job gain donward for December and November. Looking solely at these headline numbers, you’d conclude that the labor market is running hotter than expected/hoped by investors and that this report lowered the odds that the Federal Reserve would begin cutting interest rates as early at its March 20 meeting. And that fears that the Fed would delay interest rate cuts would hurt stocks. That isn’t exactly what happened today
November 24, 2023 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
Initial claims for unemployment fell by 24,000 to 209,000 in the week ending November 18, the Labor Department said n Wednesday. That was the biggest drop since June. Continuing claims, the number of people continuously receiving unemployment benefits, slipped to 1.84 million in the week ended Nov. 11. That was the first drop in two months.
July 6, 2023 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
Earlier this week economists were projecting the official government jobs report due on Friday, that is tomorrow, would show that the U.S. economy added just 200,000 jobs in June. This morning, however, the ADP Research Institute’s survey of private employers showed the economy added 497,000 jobs in June. That’s more than twice the 220,000 gain that economists had projected for this report. And way above the 267,000 jobs reported by this survey in May.
June 8, 2023 | Daily JAM |
Initial jobless claims rose by 28,000 to 261,000 in the week ended June 3, which included the Memorial Day holiday, according to the Labor Department, Thursday, June 8. The increase was the biggest since July 2021 and exceeded all forecasts in Bloomberg’s survey of economists. The total number of new applications was the highest since October 2021, suggesting mounting layoff announcements may be starting to translate into job cuts.
June 2, 2023 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
The U.S. economy added a monster 339,000 jobs in May. Economists had been looking for 180,000 to 190,000 jobs. On the news, stocks rallied. Strongly. The Standard & Poor’s 500 closed up 1.45%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day 2.12% higher. The NASDAQ Composite added 1.07% and the NASDAQ 100 finished up 0.73%. The small-cap Russell 2000 moved higher by 3.56%. So why did stocks move up?
May 11, 2023 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
The Producer Price Index rose 0.25% in April from March and at a 2.3% rate year-over-year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, May 11. This index measures prices at the wholesale level–changes at that level eventually show up in the prices that consumers pay so they’re an indicator of the direction of future consumer inflation. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected producer prices to rise 0.3% in April on a monthly basis and 2.5% on a yearly basis. In March, producer prices slipped 0.5% on a monthly basis and rose 2.7% on a yearly basis. The annual 2.5% rate is the lowest annual increase in producer inflation in more than two years. So in these numbers, we’ve got clear evidence that inflation is falling. But, also this morning, initial claims for unemployment for the week ending May 6 rose 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 264,000 claims. That was above expectations from economists surveyed by Reuters for 245,000 initial claims for unemployment. The number of workers filing new claims for unemployment hit a 1-1/2-year high.
May 5, 2023 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
The U.S. economy added 253,000 jobs in April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today, Friday, May 5. The official unemployment rate dipped by 10 basis points to 3.4%. (The U-6 unemployment rate, which includes discouraged workers who have stopped looking for a job and workers with part-time jobs who would like full-time work, fell to 6.1% in April (before seasonal adjustments) from 6.8% in March.) Economists were looking for the economy to add just 180,000 jobs in the month. The number is a huge surge after a drop from 472,000 jobs added in January to a revised 165,000 in March.
May 4, 2023 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing, Short Term |
Initial claims for unemployment rose by the most in six weeks while continuing claims fell in the week ended April 29, the Labor Department reported this morning. Initial unemployment claims rose by 13,000 to 242,000. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg were looking for 240,000 initial claims. Continuing claims, which include people who have received unemployment benefits for a week or more and are a good indicator of how hard it is for people to find work after losing their jobs, fell by 38,000 to 1.81 million in the week ended April 22. That marked the biggest drop since July. If you think that a rise in unemployment and a weakening of the labor market is a good thing, as the Federal Reserve does, because it sets the stage for a decline in inflation, then today’s data had its negative aspects too. A separate report out today showed U.S. worker productivity declined in the first quarter by more than forecast and labor costs accelerated. That’s a strong argument for higher inflation.
October 18, 2022 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
On Monday, October 17, Microsoft (MSFT) confirmed that it had laid off nearly 1,000 employees across multiple divisions, including Xbox division staff this week.
