The Daily Update: Powell's Non-Event / Non-Farm Payrolls

Yesterday we had Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell discussing the economic outlook on a Wall Street Journal jobs summit, with the much-anticipated Q&A session being largely a non-event. There had been some expectation that Powell would push back against the recent rise in yields and the aggressive moves in treasury markets. However, it was not to be. Powell repeated Brainard’s comments from earlier this week, saying that he ‘would be concerned by disorderly conditions in markets or a persistent tightening in financial conditions that threatens the achievement of our goals’. He went on to say that the Fed ‘will be patient’ adding that they are still a long way ‘from our goals’. While neither official thinks markets are currently a problem, they both have acknowledged being more watchful after last week’s price action, with Brainard saying last week’s market moves ‘caught her eye’ while Powell said they ‘caught my attention’.

Also, today being the first Friday of the month means it is Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP). The market estimates before the figures were for 200k jobs added, an unemployment rate of 6.3% and participation rate of 61.4% before the figures.

The actual number of jobs added was 379k with the previous month’s figure revised up to 166k from 49k. The unemployment rate fell to 6.2% versus the prior month’s reading of 6.3% and the participation rate fell to 61.4%.