Wall Street has ended this Friday's session with solid falls (Dow Jones: -1.63%; S&P 500: -1.54%; Nasdaq: -1.63%) after closing on Thursday to commemorate the passing of Jimmy Carter. Investors have focused their attention on the December employment data and in the bond market, with the yield of the 10 year American bond at levels of 4.76%. He United States labor market has surprised upwards in the last month of the year with the creation of 256,000 new jobsaccording to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figure has been above the 212,000 jobs in November, and has also exceeded the consensus forecast, which anticipated 160,000. The unemployment ratemeanwhile, has eased to 4.1%, from 4.2%. The data has also impacted the bond marketwhich has become one of the main concerns for equity investors. In it weekly calculationthe New York indices have ended a week in the red with losses of 2.4% for the Nasdaqwhile the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones 1.8% and 1.6% have been left, respectively.
THE EXPERT ANALYSIS
«Overall, the report noted that the labor market had remained strong as the end of 2024 approached and therefore seems unlikely to be a radical change from a political perspective. FOMC remains on track to 'skip' January meeting, leaving fed funds rate unchangedallowing time to examine the impacts of the 100 basis point normalization implemented last year, while also providing the opportunity to assess the risks of upside inflation and the impacts of the first policies implemented by the incoming Trump administration.» says Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone. «Looking ahead, further steps towards a more neutral political stance are likely in 2025although these steps will probably be taken at a much slower pace than last year, and the 'dot plot' points to only two cuts of 25 basis points as an average expectation for next year,» adds the expert. For those Bankinter analysts, «with Trump's inauguration on January 20, the logical thing is that the Fed continues to use a more hawkish tone. Thus taking more time to make another rate cut. In this context and as we mentioned in our 2025 Investment Strategy, we hope the next cut Fed rates occurs in September and at most they make another additional one in December to close the year with the reference rate (Fed Funds) at levels of 3.75%/4.00%«. This Thursday, the Boston Fed President Susan Collinsadvised a cautious approach regarding possible further cuts in the price of money, since the current economic context, characterized by a strong labor market and a inflation «tighter than expected»requires patience with rate drops.
LOS ANGELES FIRES
On the other hand, American insurers have been under pressure, due to the impact that the million-dollar losses caused by the fires in Los Angeles, California. In addition, the shares of the electric company Edison Internationalelectrical matrix Southern California Edison Companyhave fallen due to doubts about the origin of the fires and their high devastation.
OTHER MARKETS
In other markets, oil Brent has risen 3.65% ($79.72). For his part, the euro has depreciated 0.52% ($1.0244), and the ounce of gold has advanced 0.95% ($2,716). Furthermore, the 10-year American bond yield has risen to 4.76% and the bitcoin has rebounded 3.93% ($95,320).
