Stocks stable despite October’s jobs report miss

The three major indexes (^DJI,^GSPC, ^IXIC) are moving higher after the jobs report showed the unemployment rate held steady in October while only 12,000 jobs were added in the month, compared to the 100,000 jobs expected. The market seemingly looked past the jobs report as the data was impacted by both hurricanes and labor strikes.

Market Domination Hosts Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton discuss the market reaction to the jobs report with The Conference Board chief economist Dana Peterson and Baird managing director and market strategist Michael Antonelli.

Peterson tells Yahoo Finance she thinks the market should look past the October jobs report, saying, “We did have a lot of volatility there in terms of hurricane effects and also the strikes … If you add back the roughly [40,000] to 50,000 strikers also, you erase the effects of folks who were impacted by the hurricane, which was more apparent definitely in the household data relative to the payrolls data. I think you can say that this report might not have been as bad and that we should definitely look through it.”

Antonelli adds the data is “certainly noisy,” saying “The market is not reacting to data from October of 2024. The market is looking out into [the] spring of 2025. Let’s remember that the US stock market is a leading indicator, [while] employment [data] is a lagging indicator.”

The strategist says the more important consideration is what “the stock market and the bond market (^TYX, ^TNX, ^FVX) are saying about next year” and the confidence in the US economy.

Peterson notes that the data could be revised, though the labor market appears strong. “One concerning thing is that we did see some downward revisions to prior months, but even still, when you add it up, payroll gains over the prior months, they were still very healthy,”

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