Economics
What Will the Jobs Report Show? Six Wall Street Traders Try to Predict the Future
- Economists project that US employers added 298k jobs in August
- Nobody really knows what good data is, says Prosper’s Bauer
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Say you had a crystal ball, and could see today what the jobs report will show tomorrow. Would you even know how to trade it?
Never a simple proposition, it’s an even thornier one now, with cross-currents raging as the health of the economy plays havoc with the Federal Reserve’s reaction function. Good news has been taken as everything from great to awful, by investors operating in a world of uncertainty. Regarding Friday, their view is relatively straightforward: the better the number, the worse for markets, with Jerome Powell’s central bank looming as the larger threat.