Economics
It's Market Deja Vu: Jobs Beat, Wages Miss, and Stocks Rally
- Latest wage data suggests Fed won’t be forced to accelerate
- S&P 500 heads for 3 percent weekly gain with Friday surge
U.S. Adds 313,000 Jobs in Feb., Jobless Rate 4.1%
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It’s a familiar sequence: Payrolls beat estimates, wages miss, and stocks rally. Everyone can relax, the “Goldilocks” scenario is again alive and well in the U.S. economy.
The S&P 500 Index is cruising toward a 3 percent weekly advance, helped Friday by the same labor department data that last month sparked the worst equity meltdown in two years. This time round, though, the figures showed employers added the most workers since mid-2016 and wage gains cooled; and that’s adding up to a rosy outlook for stocks.