U.S. economy
The December Non-Farm Payrolls Report came in quite solid. 252k new jobs were created in the month, surpassing analyst expectations of 240K. The unemployment rate tumbled to 5.6% from 5.8%. And last month's jobs number was revised nicely higher.
The one big weak spot? Wages. Economists, Fed-watchers, and workers have been waiting for wage growth to finally kick in, but it's still very mediocre. In fact, average hourly earnings fell 0.2% in December. And last month's gain of 0.4% was revised lower to a gain of just 0.2%.
While this is disappointing, it might be the kind of number that investors love, as it indicates that there's still not much inflationary pressure in the pipeline, and thus not much pressure on the Fed to tighten sooner
Joe Weisenthal is a managing editor at Bloomberg Digital.
