One didn't think that an economic event could come and go without some commentary from the WSJ's resident "Fed mouthpiece-cum-economist" who has rapidly become a caricature of himself, and is solely known for his heretofore programmed leaks of Fed policy, which tended to work until it didn't. In a normal day when newsflow or fundamentals actually mattered, we would focus on far more important things. However, since we are caught in the manic phase of the market's daily bipolar gyrations, and nothing can make a dent in sentiment at least until Monday when the market suddenly decides it was 100% wrong in its re-interpretation of Draghi's comments (last we checked there is still no press release from the Bundesbank saying it has agreed to any bond buying, let along short-dated) and decides to plunge all over again, here is Jon with more propaganda that today's NFP beat, which is still well below the 200+ needed to maintain the declining unemployment rate trendline, means nothing for the Fed.
From the WSJ [6]:
Today’s employment data aren’t enough to dramatically alter the Federal Reserve‘s view that the economy is growing too slowly to register meaningful improvement in the unemployment rate.
Though payrolls improved, the jobless rate hasn’t come down since the beginning of the year, keeping it well above almost any definition of maximum sustainable employment, which is half of the mandate Congress has given the Fed. (The other half, or course, being stable prices.) That leaves the door still open to new moves by the Fed to help the economy.
On Wednesday, the central bank made what amounted to a conditional promise of action. In a statement carefully worded to send a strong signal, it said it will “closely monitor” the economy and “will provide additional accommodation as needed to promote a stronger economic recovery and sustained improvement in labor market conditions.”
Fed officials get another snapshot of the job market — on Sept. 7 — before their next meeting, which is set for Sept. 12-13.
Our advice: ignore the pleading of hits hollow scribe, and focus solely on whether the Fed will continue engaging in repos in the next month. A few more of those will give the answer everyone is looking for.