November’s jobs report is the big event for markets in the week ahead, and it could provide important insight into the path of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes. Stocks were higher in the shortened holiday week, with the S & P 500 up as Treasury yields slid and the dollar weakened. The post-Thanksgiving week will be a relatively busy one, crammed with economic data on employment, inflation, manufacturing and spending. There is also a flurry of Fed speakers, including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell , with a timely speech Wednesday at the Brookings Institution on labor and the economy. “It’s all about the labor report. We know this is what the Fed is really focused on,” said Kathy Jones, chief fixed income strategist at the Schwab Center for Financial Research. “So, obviously it’s going to be a big part of their thought process – how the labor market is doing and whether we’re seeing that loosening that they want to see. The euphemism for loosening is higher unemployment.” The labor market has cooled only slightly, as other parts of the economy have slowed. Wage gains and worker shortages have helped propel inflation. Economists see the Fed’s rate hikes chiseling away at job growth and possibly even turning negative. But the labor market has been more resilient than expected, challenging the Fed’s efforts to tame inflation by slowing e …
The November jobs report and the Fed matter most to markets in the week ahead – CNBC
