The #JobsReport came in at 372,000 jobs gained, the #unemployment rate at 3.6%, which was coupled with #wage growth of 5.1% year-over-year: all solid numbers in a historic context.
Still, when taken in the context of much of the #economic data coming in, last week’s #employment report reemphasized two key tenets of the economy and consequently of #investment markets: 1) the U.S., and indeed the global economy, is tangibly slowing…
…and 2) we are probably past the #employment peak and will likely witness #LaborMarket slowing in the back half of the year.
As the #economy emerges from Covid, the number of employers looking for help has been extremely high across virtually every #industry, and in virtually record amounts across industries, but we are clearly in the process of a state of change.
Indeed, the leisure and hospitality (67,000), professional and #business services (74,000) and goods-producing (48,000) sectors have displayed a decent decline in #hiring versus their 12-month averages of 134,000, 99,000, and 72,000, respectively…
...depicting a reduced need for people, with some #HiringFreezes, and for the first time in a while, tangible #layoffs across these and other industries.
We suggested last month that we had seen the last very strong #payroll print for the foreseeable future, and while last week’s number displayed the resilience of labor #markets…
…we continue to hold to the thesis of an #economy that is not only slowing, but one with many #companies increasingly uncertain as to near-to-intermediate term prospects for top line #revenues.
Further, there is also a likely tangible squeezing of their #ProfitMargins (and #earnings), which places a great emphasis on cost management and greater selectivity across hiring requirements.
Indeed, we think that we will see #JobsReports that start to disappoint, alongside of a #Fed that has indicated that #inflation-curtailment is its primary objective; with willingness to allow a “still hot” job market to substantially cool, even to the point of net job losses.
From the standpoint of #MonetaryPolicy, last week’s report is clearly strong enough to allow the #Fed to hike rates 75 bps in July and probably 50 bps in September, but the pace of #tightening should slow dramatically alongside of a tangibly slowing U.S. economy.
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Today’s much anticipated #CPI report provided greater detail on the current #inflation picture, and importantly, on what the @federalreserve is most focused upon these days, and unfortunately, it’s hard to see it as anything other than a #setback.
Recently, it has become clear that the #Fed is taking on a patient stance with regard to #inflation coming down, but today's report was further evidence that it may take even longer for inflation to finally reach the Fed’s 2% target level.
In fact, today’s data means #CorePCE on a year-over-year basis may not get to 2.5% at any point in 2024, and that’s with a wedge where #CoreCPI is running around 100 basis points higher. This meaningful surprise therefore forces us to reassess some views.
Yesterday’s #CPI data was highly anticipated by #markets, and particularly whether the elevated shelter #inflation from last month’s data ended up being a quirky aberration within service level inflation that is still quite a distance from the Fed’s 2% intermediate-term target.
What compounded this quandary last month was a very strange divergence between the Owner Equivalent Rent (#OER) calculation and that for general #Rent.
Those two data points typically migrate closely together over time, with a maximum divergence of 9 basis points (bps) in 2023.
As was widely expected, the @federalreserve today halted the most aggressive policy rate #HikingCycle since 1980, leaving the Fed Funds range unchanged at 5.0% to 5.25%, a level that appears clear to us to be finally having an impact on the #economy.
We think today’s actions represent a “Hawkish skip,” which implies that #policy makers are seeking more #data before potentially hiking rates again in July, or September.
For our part, we think #ChairPowell’s comments at the press conference made it clear that the #FOMC is seeking to balance increasingly restrictive monetary policy with the high degree of uncertainty around the tightening of #CreditConditions…
Today’s #CPI report for May showed another very firm depiction of where #inflation currently resides in the U.S., with #coreCPI (excluding volatile food and energy components) printing at 0.44% month-over-month and 5.33% year-over-year.
Meanwhile, #headlineCPI data printed 0.12% month-over-month and came in just above 4% year-over-year, with declines in #energy components and some food prices being offset by gains in #shelter and used cars and trucks.
Overall, headline #inflation does appear to be moderating at a faster pace and we believe that the trend in inflation (despite the firmness of core measures in today’s report) is broadly heading in the right direction, relative to the @federalreserve’s inflation target.
We’ve seen the pace of #payroll gains decelerate to roughly the monthly trend pace from the last expansion; consensus has been waiting for this moment and expected a 195,000 job gain in May, but the data printed considerably stronger at 339,000 #jobs gained.
The three-month moving average of #nonfarm payrolls sits at 283,000, down from 334,000 jobs at the start of the year, but what the #LaborMarket imbalance needs is more supply and more slack.
The #unemployment rate ticked up to 3.65%, close to its 12-month average level, and average hourly #earnings (a volatile figure) gained 0.33% month-over-month and 4.3% on a year-over-year basis.
Today’s #CPI report continues to depict #inflation that is just too high for most people’s good, especially the @federalreserve’s.
In fact, the report showed that #inflation remains remarkably sticky, which doesn’t correspond to virtually any practical thinker’s timeline of when it might be expected to start to come down further.
These elevated levels of inflation continue to be remarkably high relative to the many months with which the #economy has now operated with persistently higher #InterestRates.