The April jobs number was not only disappointing but it embarrassed some people and their predictions. Wall Street was looking for 220,000 new jobs for the month of April and Goldman was even more aggressive looking for 250,000 – the actual number was 160,000. The bond markets reacted by placing a 35% chance that the next move up in interest rates will take place in December of this year.
On May 12, first time jobless claims were reported at just under 300,000 a 14 month high. The first-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) showed an annualized rate of one half of 1%. At this level for the first 90 days of 2016 the economic growth was about three hundreds of 1% per month, almost negligible.
Some economists are wondering if the Fed will reduce interest rates or even turn to negative rate to stimulate the economy. Currently the Fed has 25 basis points…
