In spite of my own skepticism with the various organizations (government and others) releasing jobs numbers it is hard to be negative on job growth.
266,000 jobs simply blew all predictions out of the water, and the last couple of months were revised upward.
Compared to the ADP report of +67,000 jobs in November the government number is simply crazy. Whether either employment report is correct is up for debate I suppose, but I learned long ago that guesses by forecasters are worth absolutely nothing. One thing is almost for sure–there is no recession in the near future.
The equity market are up about 1/2% on the news while the 10 year treasury is up about 6 basis points to 1.855%.
Contrary to previous employment reports we can’t say “this brings the Fed back in play”—at least if we take them at their word without inflation they will not hike rates–and certainly the employment report is not supportive of cutting rates.