The world’s leading power created 517,000 new jobs in January, beating all forecasts
Investors end a week full of key references for the markets. The rise in interest rates by major central banks has added to a flurry of results from business giants such as the big tech companies on Wall Street or Spanish banks.
But if anyone thought that the last session of the week would go without surprises, nothing could be further from the truth. And it is that the US employment data released this Friday has spread like wildfire among stock market operators, completely stunned by much stronger than expected labor market data.
Specifically, the world’s leading power managed to create 517,000 jobs in January. A figure that far exceeds the previous month’s 260,000, but has above all shattered the initial forecast of the analyst consensus, which pointed to the creation of 185,000 jobs. The unemployment rate in the US fell again to 3.6%, the lowest level since 1969.
The resistance of the US economy to the crisis is more than clear. The problem? That, as on other occasions, good news can actually be bad for the market. And it is that this strength of the labor market supports more aggressive action by the Federal Reserve (Fed) if necessary, despite the fact that the organization decided this week to put the brakes on the pace of interest rate hike, with an increase of only 25 basis points.
Until now, investors had been anticipating the approaching end of rate hikes in March, so interest rates would begin to fall before the end of the year. But this Friday’s well-known macro references have again called that possibility into question.
Thus, and with the declines on Wall Street after the data was released, European stock markets also fell. In Spain, the Ibex-35 struggled to hold 9,200 points, with a limited 0.3% decline in which CaixaBank had a lot to do. The entity, which presented its accounts on Friday with a profit of 3.145 million euros, led the selection falls with a drop of 3%. The increases in Santander and BBVA, which rose by more than 1%, were to no avail.
The results of the technology giants also weighed on investors. Apple, Amazon and Google – which weigh heavily in the market – disappointed with their accounts, something that was especially noticeable in the Nasdaq index, which recorded the largest declines in the US stock market. According to calculations by the financial website Marketwatch, the price drops of the three companies on the stock exchange lowered their combined valuation by about $ 150 billion last night.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
