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T3’s Take 3: The US Dollar Sinks on a ‘Meh’ Jobs Report

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1) A ‘Meh' Jobs Report

This morning, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics said that 235,000 nonfarm payrolls were added in February, beating the 200,000 consensus.

The unemployment rate was 4.7%, in-line with expectations.

However, average hourly earnings grew by just 0.2%, missing the expected 0.3% reading.

That drove profit-taking in the US dollar, which has been moving higher in anticipation of a March rate hike.

That said, the headline number was still pretty good, and traders are unwavering in their belief that March is in play.

The CME's FedWatch Tool shows that markets are pricing a 91% probability of a rate increase this month.

2) The Big Yawn Market

While I was hoping for some volatility on today's jobs numbers, we didn't it.

Stocks once again traded in a very tight range, with the S&P 500 trading up 0.3%.

The Russell 2000 and S&P 500 also made modest gains.

Like the US dollar, bank stocks saw profit-taking on the disappointing hourly earnings number.

Meanwhile, rate-sensitive groups like gold miners and utilities caught a bid.

The brightest spot of the day was biotech, which rallied nicely in the afternoon on speculation that sector leader Gilead (GILD) is about to announce an acquisition.

Plus, President Trump is expected to appoint Scott Gottlieb, a doctor with deep ties to the pharma industries, as FDA commissioner. Presumably, he'd create the friendlier regulatory environment that Trump has promised.

3) Neutrality

Last week, various sentiment indicators showed that traders were getting very cocky.

This week, the picture is quite mixed.

The AAII Sentiment Survey showed that individual investors have become much more cautious, even though the major indices barely moved.

Click here to read my full Weekly Sentiment Update.

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