NEW YORK, Mar 6 (Reuters) - U.S. employers maintained a robust pace of hiring in February, giving the economy a strong boost as it confronts the coronavirus outbreak that has stoked financial market fears of a recession and prompted an emergency interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve.
KEY POINTS: U.S. February employment data for February came in well above expectations, with the U.S. economy creating 273,000 jobs in the month compared to an analyst forecast of 175,000. Market participants remain focused on the risks from a coronavirus outbreak that has accelerated around the world in recent weeks. Stock futures, Treasury yields and the dollar all remain solidly lower.
COMMENTS:
JOHN DOYLE, VICE PRESIDENT FOR DEALING AND TRADING, Monex INC, WASHINGTON
“The print is very impressive. Anytime the headline reading beats expectations by 100K, it should be the top story of the day. But I think the positivity of the numbers will be drowned out by the overarching risk-off environment today.”
RUSSELL PRICE, CHIEF ECONOMIST, AMERIPRISE FINANCIAL SERVICES INC, TROY, MICHIGAN
“Today’s report is like the calm before the storm. The construction industry added some nice support to the numbers, both this month and last month, and that was largely reflective of the milder weather we’ve been experiencing this year.
“It’s a reflection of just how strong the economy was before the coronavirus development. So that’s a good sign that there is fundamental support at least for economic prospects once this situation passes.
“It was fairly broad-based, but it was the services industries did very well. Surprisingly, and this is a reflection of how dated this number is relative to what we can expect going forward. Leisure and hospitality was strong, as was education and healthcare. Healthcare will very likely remain very strong, but education and leisure and hospitality in the months ahead will very likely see decline.
DOUG DUNCAN, CHIEF ECONOMIST AT FANNIE MAE, WASHINGTON D.C.
“Hard to find anything to complain about in this report. The upward revisions are surprising and really strong.”
“What this does suggest is that there is strength in the labor market going into the coronavirus. We might not even see layoffs rising in the next report because it is expensive to lay people off and hire them back.”
“We’re not yet seeing any impact yet on leisure and hospitality.”
JJ KINAHAN, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST AT TD AMERITRADE IN CHICAGO
“It is nice to know we were in a really solid place before all this started. At the end of the day, it is a good report and bonds did come off significantly since the report. But when you look at the report, the healthcare sector is still doing good – it’s fantastic. Government hiring always makes me a little nervous because you are never quite sure if that is sustainable. I have to think the 53,000 jobs created in the hospitality industry certainly will not show up again in this month’s report.”
“Where jobs were lost – retail was expected. The one that makes me nervous is transportation because if you start losing a lot of jobs there, we know the transportation sector has been suffering pretty significantly.”
“Looking at this report in a vacuum you would think is it is a great report. Looking at this report and saying what has changed over the last two weeks – great to know where we were, not sure it matters at the moment. You don’t know what you don’t know and clearly the market is very nervous about what we don’t know.”
