(As of 7:20 am PST)
Today’s much anticipated jobs report has left investors still scratching
their heads over what the Fed will do next.
The Labor Dept. reported 175,000 private sector jobs were added in May,
up from April’s report and slightly ahead of expectations. The number wasn’t quite good enough to
suggest the Fed will begin tapering back its stimulus package known as
QE3. On the other hand, it wasn’t awful
enough to indicate they will continue full steam ahead with their bond
purchases. So where does that leave
investors? Confused. One thing is for sure, the pace of growth
remains muddled. The unemployment rate
ticked up in May from 7.5% to 7.6% largely due to a surge in the labor force
where nearly 420,000 new people began looking for work. The market has responded to the report
positively with all three major indices up nearly 1%. However, we’ve seen how volatile the first
and last hour of trading can be, so it’s too soon to tell if we’re in full
rally mode today. Gold prices are off 2%
while interest rates are higher and the US dollar is up. With an inconclusive jobs report, we could be
in for a back and forth couple of weeks until the next Fed policy meeting later
in June.
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