Hello traders everywhere! Jeremy Lutz here with your mid-day market update for Friday, the 7th of December.
The U.S. added more jobs in November, sending stock index futures up in pre-market trading immediately after the report was released. The main numbers from the jobs report were encouraging, but the underlying report was mixed. The Labor Department said the U.S. added 146,000 jobs last month. The unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent, the lowest since December 2008.
The unemployment rate fell largely because discouraged unemployed workers stopped looking for work, and weren't counted among the unemployed. Also, the Labor Department revised previously released jobs numbers downward, saying that employers added 49,000 fewer jobs in October and September than initially estimated. However, missing from the report is the effect that Hurricane Sandy has had on the job market in the northeast. We likely won't see that included in the report until February.
The market is also under the cloud of other challenges, notably the "fiscal cliff" drama in Washington. Congress and the White House are trying to hammer out an agreement on government spending and tax rates before Jan. 1. If they don't, government spending cuts and higher taxes will kick in. It doesn't help that House Speaker, John Boehner, said Friday that there has been no progress in negotiations to avert the "fiscal cliff" and called on President Barack Obama to produce a new offer.
Let's see what the Trade Triangles say about the markets today.
Have a great weekend,
Jeremy Lutz
