This morning’s Non-Farm Payrolls report showed that 111,000 new jobs were created in January, short of Wall Street’s 155,000 expectations. The weaker-than-expected figure did not give mortgage markets a reason to rally, however, because December’s figures were revised higher by 39,000 and November’s by 42,000.
Traders have shrugged off the data for three major reasons:
- Constant revisions to previous releases makes it hard to tell what the data exactly means. December was revised upward 23%; November by 27%.
- The unemployment rate rose slightly suggesting that consumers will have fewer dollars to fuel the economy
- Wage growth slowed, again giving Americans less money to pump back into GDP
Oh, and as we head into Super Bowl weekend, don’t forget that many Chicago-based bond traders already have one foot in Miami.
