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What the October Jobs Data Means for the Fed
With investors neatly divided about the possibility the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in December, the U.S. jobs report on Friday could affect both market prices and volatility. Three data points in the October report warrant particularly close attention: Job creation: The pace of monthly job creation slowed unexpectedly in September, to 142,000, well below the 200,000 forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists. In combination with equally surprising negative revisions to previous months, that brought the monthly average for 2015 to 198,000, compared with 260,000 for 2014. It is natural for the pace of ... (full story)