US economy stagnates
US nonfarm payrolls provided another beat, with the economy adding +216,000 to employment in December, well ahead of expectations.
However, there were -71,000 of downward revisions to previous months.
Annual employment growth has slowed to 1.7 per cent, the slowest since March 2021.
The unemployment rate held firm at 3.7 per cent.
Unusually, it's been under 4 per cent for two years down, which is something we haven't seen since the 1960s.
The annual growth in average hourly earnings was higher than expected at +4.1 per cent.
Despite this, the outlook is deteriorating.
The ISM manufacturing gauge came in at 50.6 (versus 52.7 previously).
More pertinently the employment gauge crashed to the lowest level in more than 3 years at just 43.3 per cent.
That's something you basically never see outside recessions.
Markets are looking for a first interest rate cut by March as the economy stagnates.
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