Ugly jobs report in which not even the spin brigade could find anything to cheer, after even the BLS said the atrocious December print was not due to the weather when it did not revise the December number? No worries: here is what the market is using as a goalseeked justification to send the futures off its post report plunge lows to a level higher than where it was before the report. See if you can spot it:
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That's right - after years of ignoring the impact of the labor force participation rate, suddenly the market trading algos are so concerned about LFP they took the "surge" from the 35 year lows of 62.8% to 63.0% as the all clear signal that they can ignore all the other data in the NFP report and buy.
Another way of seeing this, is the number of people not in the labor force, which declined from an all time record 91,808 to 91,455 - just below the second highest ever.
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Of course, both these trends will revert to their historic deteriorating progression, but for now it is all about finding the narrative that allows the market to explain why someone just reactivated the USDJPY 102 tractor beam which is sending everything soaring.
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