TDA's JJ Kinahan On Jobs Report: This Was Probably 'The Least Important Report' In A Long Time

On Friday, the United States released its last jobs report of the year, corresponding to the month of November. As per the note, 178,000 new jobs were created over the month, almost in line with expectations of 180,000 new jobs. Unemployment consequently decreased from 4.9 percent to 4.6 percent, hitting its lowest point since August of 2007.

To better grasp the meaning of these figures, Benzinga reached out to TD Ameritrade Chief Strategist JJ Kinahan.

“[I found] two surprising things; one good, one bad,” he said. “The good surprise was that construction jobs were the third area where we created jobs last month. That’s a really good sign of a healthy economy.”

“[In addition], there were 300,000 people who were previously unemployed who found jobs [at least seasonally],” Kinahan said. “The negative surprise is that the average hourly earnings went down for the first time in a while. That’s just something to start keeping an eye on [although] one month does not make a trend.”

Interest Rates And Declining Earnings

Moreover, he noted, declining earnings was not something the Federal Reserve wanted to see, in terms of justifying an interest rate hike soon. Nonetheless, he added, the jobs report does not change his expectations for the timing of a rate hike. “If you look at Fed funds, we were at a 99 percent probability. So, I think this was probably the least important employment report we’ve had in a long time,” he explained. “The reason I say that is, unless they had a blowout number to the upside, or a really bad number, I think that the reaction that we saw is exactly what was locked in.”

“Nobody knows what to do with this,” Kinahan added. “They just don’t feel it’s that important a number, because everything is locked in.”

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