Surprise! U.S. economy adds 266,000 jobs in November; unemployment drops to 3.5%
The United States added 266,000 jobs in November and the official unemployment rate fell to 3.5%. The results were buoyed by the return to jobs of 41,300 General Motors workers after the settlement of that strike. But the November total was still impressively stronger...
Saturday Night Quarterback (on a Sunday) says, For the week ahead expect…
... to be drowning in economic data. The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee meeting on Wednesday, May 1, isn't even the high point of the data week. The U.S. central bank is expected to keep interest rates unchanged so it's Chair Jerome Powell's press conference...
GDP growth ticks lower but wage gains pick up speed: Market takes possibility of four interest increases from Fed in 2018 more seriously
U.S. GDP grew at an annualized rate of 2.3% in the first quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced this morning. Economists had expected growth of 2.1%. In the fourth quarter of 2017, the U.S. economy had grown at an annualized rate of 2.9%. But the rate of growth for the U.S. economy was overshadowed by other data in this morning’s report showing a significant increase in wages and inflation.
Jobs number strong but income growth disappoints
The U.S. economy added a net 228,000 jobs in November, the Labor Department reported this morning. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg were looking for a gain of 195,000. That kept the unemployment rate at 4.1%, the lowest since 2000. Disappointingly, however, average hourly earnings increased by just 0.2%, less than the 0.3% gain expected by economists surveyed by Briefing.com That took the year over year gain in average hourly earnings to 2.5%
Ah, if only a strong economy guaranteed a strong stock market
It’s important to remember that a strong U.S. economy doesn’t guarantee a climbing U.S. stock market. We can see that in likelihood that despite that economic strength the stocks in the U.S. Standard & Poor’s 500 are projected to have turned in yet another quarter–the fifth in a row–of declining year to year earnings when all the numbers are added up for the second quarter of 2016.
New data on wages and inflation higher than expected in April
On Wednesday the Federal Reserve will release the minutes from its April meeting–against a background set by today’s release of numbers showing stronger than expected wage and inflation growth.
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