It looks like fears that the market would sell-off on a very weak jobs number were unfounded.
On Friday the market learned that U.S. employers axed payrolls by 533,000 in November, the most in 34 years but the Dow only sold-off moderately.
If there was ever a time to remind investors that the labor market is a lagging economic indicator, economists say today is such a day.
Once the knee-jerk, doom-and-gloom reaction is over, something resembling optimism will prevail with the conclusion that the worst is over for the economy.
“This is history,” says veteran Wall Street economist Ram Bhagavatula. “December payrolls will be weak as well. The leading indicators will come from a slow re-activation of the credit markets and increases in consumer spending. You should begin to see that in the next couple of months.”
And that leads to our Fast Money Reader Poll. Do you think the horrible jobs number is a signal that the worst is behind us?
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