
The Improving US Jobs Report: Can It Stop the Market Turmoil?
By Sarah SandsFeb. 16 2018, Updated 7:32 a.m. ET
US jobs report for January 2018
Non-farm payroll data for January 2018 indicated an improvement in the US labor market compared to December 2017. Non-farm payrolls stood at 200,000 in January compared to 148,000 in December. It beat the market expectation of 180,000.
Highlights of the January jobs report
- The healthcare (XLV) sector continued its strong performance and added 21,000 jobs.
- The food service and drinking place sector added 31,000 jobs.
- The construction sector added 36,000 jobs.
- The manufacturing sector added 15,000 jobs.
Economic impact
As we’ve already seen, major US indexes, including the S&P 500 index (SPX-INDEX), the NASDAQ Composite (COMP-INDEX), and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA-INDEX), had solid performances in January 2018. However, from February 5–9, 2018, they fell significantly by 5.1%, 5%, and 5.2%, respectively.
Major indexes around the globe also showed strong corrections in the first week of February 2018. The expectation of a slowdown in global growth and an aggressive tightening process could be what mainly affected investor sentiment. However, in a panic situation, strong improvement in fundamental factors can be extremely helpful when it comes to market movement.
In the next part of this series, we’ll analyze the performance of the Eurozone Sentix Investor Confidence in February 2018.