(eToro Blog) Wall Street pushed aside today’s NFP employment report and refused to ignore the lack of progress out of Europe. The NFP employment report showed that 200,000 positions were created in December and the unemployment report declined to 8.5%. The unemployment level is the lowest seen in the last three years. While the increase in positions and drop in unemployment is plenty to cheer for average Americans, investors shunned the news. Skeptics worried that the unemployment rate dropped as the labor pool shrunk due to discouraged workers. While the creation of 200,000 jobs is double the 100,000 jobs created in November, investors want to see several months of 200K position growth before being convinced that the economy is on solid footing. In addition, investors were expecting to see job creation figures around 300K after yesterday’s blockbuster data from the ADP report. The ADP report showed that 325K positions were created by the private sector in the month of December.
The NFP report is one of several U.S. economic releases that have been positive of late. The weakness in the markets persisted with the Dow down 0.3% and the S&P 500 down 0.1%. The Nasdaq is up 0.2% at the time of writing this report. Wall Street was taking its cue from the direction of the EURUSD which fell below 1.2700 in early U.S. session. Bad news from Europe came in the form of Italian 10 year bond yields that rose above 7% once again. In addition the credit rating agency Fitch downgraded Hungary to BB+. Traders on OpenBook are continuing to hold their long Dow (DJ30) positions in anticipation of a rally. The longs have their limits around 12,450 and stops around 12,200.
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