S&P 500 futures are factoring in a dip on today’s jobs numbers disappointment, down 3.4 points to 1,134.10 for the March contract. Those hopes of “imminent” job creation are proving to be less imminent, after the�U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of the Census reported a drop in jobs of 85,000 in Decemberversus expectations for 10,000 jobs to be added. That basically confirms�Wednesday’s dour December report by�ADP (ADP).
The headline unemployment number remained at 10%.
Some folks are finding a silver lining in the fact that November was revised up from a loss of 11,000 jobs. The revised figures for October showed 127,000 jobs lost versus the original 111,000 figure.
The dollar’s weakened against the Euro in the wake of Labor’s numbers, rising to $1.4372. Gold futures for delivery in February are up $4.50 at $1,138.20 per ounce, and oil futures for light sweet crude are down 57 cents at $82.09 per barrel for February contracts.
Our friends at RDQ Economics remain undaunted, however, in seeing the bright side: “Over the last three months, we have seen private sector hours worked rise at an 0.8% annual rate and the rise in temporary help over the last three months (57,000 per month or 37.4% at an annual rate) suggests that companies need to boost hiring,” they write.
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