We believe financial market participants are mostly shrugging off current economic data, which have been somewhat soft (including last week’s employment report), in anticipation of a stronger recovery later this year. The recent passage of a $900 billion COVID-19 fiscal relief bill should help cushion the economy over the next few months, and an additional […]
The labor market remained under pressure in January. U.S. nonfarm payrolls were up just 49,000 in January, versus the Bloomberg consensus forecast of 105,000. December payrolls were revised down by 87,000 to ‑227,000. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the increase in January payrolls was led by an 80,900 net gain in temporary help services and […]
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) kept monetary policy unchanged at their meeting this week as expected, with the fed funds target rate in a range of 0.0% to 0.25%. The Fed also continues to purchase $80 billion of Treasuries per month, and $40 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities per month. The decision among voting […]
