President Donald Trump's top economic advisor said Friday that despite gloom in the markets, the "blowout" jobs report shows that fear of a recession is overblown.
"There's no recession in sight," National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said on Bloomberg television. "I know this has been a gloomy period, and I know people are concerned about the stock market."
The Labor Department's jobs report said the economy added 312,000 jobs in December, far more than the 177,000 that were expected. It was the largest increase in payrolls since February 2018.
"The American economy is growing 3 percent, job gains are huge and businesses are investing big time," Kudlow said. "It's a much better optimistic picture than what we've been getting in the last month or two."
Apple painted a particularly dark picture on China and the effects of a trade war. The tech company on Wednesday slashed its revenue guidance, citing headwinds in China as causing lower-than-expected iPhone sales.
Uncertainty about an ongoing trade war weighed on investors throughout 2018. The S&P 500 dropped more than 9 percent last month to notch its worst December performance since 1931. Trump told reporters Wednesday that there was a "glitch" in the stock market last month, but that equities should recover as the U.S. gets a trade deal done.
Still, investors fear that the U.S. would not be immune to a global slowdown. Kudlow acknowledged economic weakness abroad but said as long as the United States is on the "prosperity track, we'll be just fine."
"My basic model has always been that the U.S. leads," Kudlow said. "When these things go right then hopefully the rest of the world will follow."