"This report screams soft landing and looks to be a pretty
good one for the Fed," said Omair Shariff of Inflation Insights.
With wage gains slowing and the unemployment rate
ticking up due to more people entering the workforce even as
employers added jobs, he said, "in the current environment, this
is basically what the Fed is hoping to see."
(Reporting by Ann Saphir and Michael S. Derby; editing by John
Stonestreet and Chizu Nomiyama)
(Adds comment, updates markets)
March 10 (Reuters) - Traders of futures tied to the
Federal Reserve's policy rate trimmed bets on Friday that the
U.S. central bank will raise interest rates as sharply or as
high as earlier thought, after a government report showed the
U.S. unemployment rate rose to 3.6% last month and wage gains
slowed.
Fed funds futures pointed to a quarter-point rate hike as
the most likely outcome of the central bank's meeting this month
after the Labor Department report, from a better-than-even
chance of a bigger half-point rate hike seen earlier. Traders
also pared expectations for the Fed to ultimately raise rates
any higher than 5.5%. The current target range is 4.25%-4.5%.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.