It takes pressure off the Fed to hike interest rates more dramatically [than a quarter point] in August or put together a more forcefully worded statement next week [at its monetary policy meeting]. |
It was one of the biggest surprises that I've seen in some time. |
It's a dismal report. Unnerving. Is this the beginning of a one-two-three punch? |
It's an impressive number. It just gives you more confidence that you'll get 4.0 percent plus (increases) in the fourth quarter and you'll hang in there through the first. |
It's certainly an impressive number, it's the lowest since early 2001. |
It's hard to say whether a company like Home Depot would be better off with a falling unemployment rate and rising interest rates or vice versa, |
It's hard to say whether a company like Home Depot would be better off with a falling unemployment rate and rising interest rates or vice versa. |
On the inflation front, the Fed got a little more breathing room in that the year-over-year change in the core PCE price index fell from 1.9 percent to 1.8 percent. |
On the prices paid index, you're down 50 points from the highs in October, which the bond market clearly likes. |
One cannot deny that Katrina ironically may have had a positive effect on this index because of the big surge in orders. |
Ten years from now, they might both become first-tier numbers. But I doubt it. |
That, combined with no job growth, makes it harder and harder for the Fed to pull the trigger in an election year. |
The bond market doesn't really care about the payrolls data now because you're even getting the crazy question asked about whether the Fed can ease. |
The bond market is treating the drop in the unemployment rate and the increase in hourly earnings as two reasons why the Fed will have to hike rates. |
The bond market took this report as a sign that core inflation may be bottoming and the Fed may still be in the tightening business later this year, |