Friday’s stock market gains came even as the latest US employment figures appeared to pose further problems for the Federal Reserve. Non-farm payrolls increased by 113,000 last month, which – while an improvement on December’s revised 75,000 increase – was much less than the markets had been hoping for, although the jobless rate slipped to 6.6 per cent from 6.7 per cent.
“Payroll growth appears to have slowed but, given the strength of economic growth in the second half of last year, we expect to see a rebound in the monthly gains over the next few months,” said Paul Ashworth at Capital Economics.
“Moreover, with the unemployment rate down to only 6.6 per cent, the Fed should continue to wind down its asset purchases.”
But Harm Bandholz, chief US economist at UniCredit, said the January report had provided more questions for the Fed than answers.
Wall Street shrugs off weak jobs data – FT.com.
