Key takeaways from the previous week - Nomura

Analysts at Nomura offered their key takeaways from the previous Week.

Key Quotes:

"First Insights:

Payrolls grow strongly in January but wage pressure appears weak Nonfarm payrolls increased strongly by 227k in January, slightly higher than expected (Nomura: 205k, Consensus: 180k). Private payrolls added 237k jobs, above expectations (Nomura: 200k, Consensus: 175k), implying that government payrolls declined by 10k. The strength in new jobs was broad-based, but there were signs of a labor market still on the mend. The unemployment rate increased slightly to 4.8% (4.780%) from 4.7% (4.716%).

The labor force participation rate (LFPR) increased modestly by 0.2pp to 62.9% and likely contributed to the increase in the unemployment rate. It is likely that more workers joined the job market encouraged by better job prospects. To this end, the pick-up in the unemployment rate should not be considered as a signal of deterioration in labor markets.

Policy Watch - February FOMC Recap By unanimous vote, the FOMC voted to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0.5 – 0.75%. Most striking about today’s statement was the similarity to the December statement: the language on risk and reinvestment policy did not change by a single word. There were some modest changes to the economic conditions and economic outlook paragraphs."