November was the weakest jobs report of the year, coming in at a paltry 210,000, missing consensus expectations of 573,000. There were modest revisions upwards over the last two months of 8,000 and 15,000 for September and October respectively. Nothing to be excited about.
Last week’s jobs numbers came in weaker than expected. September’s CPI came in hotter than expected. That puts the Federal Reserve between a rock and a hard place. Does it tighten monetary policy to fight inflation? Or does it keep stimulating to boost the economy? In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey breaks down the data and says it’s about time for the central bank to pick its poison.
The Labor Department released its August jobs report on Friday. To say the numbers were disappointing would be an understatement.
According to the report, there was an increase of only 235k jobs, well below the estimated 720k. That’s a miss of nearly 500k jobs.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testified before Congress on Tuesday and continued to peddle the “transitory” inflation narrative.
Keeping with the dovish tone set after last week’s FOMC meeting, Powell reiterated that the central bank is not going to rush to raise interest rates, and he said the Fed would not hike rates merely in response to inflation worries.
Donald Trump was in Davos talking up the US economy in his typically hyperbolic terms. He called it “the greatest economy we’ve ever had in the history of our country.” To hear the president tell it, you would think that America is experiencing some kind of economic boom that has never been experienced by anybody in all of history. In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff called this “nonsense.”
Friday’s employment report from the Labor Department far exceeded expectations. Mainstream analysts called the report “stellar.” Some pundits even called it the best jobs report in history. According to the Labor Department, the US economy added 266,000 jobs in November. Economists had projected an increase of around 187,000. The unemployment figure dropped to 3.5%.
Peter Schiff talked about it in his latest podcast. He called it a “Trumped-up” jobs report.
It was a bumpy ride in the markets this week. Right now, volatility is the name of the game – in both stocks and precious metals. People are getting nervous out there with some pretty grim economic data this week stirring up recession fears. Meanwhile, the US government just keeps spending money it doesn’t have. Host Mike Maharrey talks about all of this and more in this week’s episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast.
During his podcast earlier this week, Peter Schiff said “the party is over” in the stock market. As if on cue, the Dow Jones is off to the worst start in a quarter since the 2008 financial crisis.
The Dow plunged 494.4 points on Wednesday, a 1.86% decline. Combined with Tuesday’s 343.7 point drop, the Dow is down more than 3% in two days. The 800-plus point slide is the worst start to a quarter since the last three months of 2008. In the fourth quarter of that year, the Dow fell 19.4%.
The February jobs report came in significantly below expectations. First quarter GDP estimates are way down. And we’re seeing other numbers that indicate a rotting economic foundation.
But nobody is worried.
In fact, most of the attention continues to be focused on the trade deal as if it is going to push the economy to new heights. In his most recent podcast, Peter dug into some of the numbers and came to the conclusion that most of the analysts and pundits are utterly clueless about what’s really going on.
October jobs numbers came out on Friday and everybody was all giddy about healthy growth. But in his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff said jobs are just another bubble about to burst.
