The Labor department announced the labor statistics for January last week. The US added 517,000 jobs, much higher than the economists' expectations of 217,000 (That was the highest margin by which they were off the mark this year). The unemployment rate is at its lowest since 1969.
Investors are divided on what this means for markets. One point of view is that the US can't go into a recession while hiring is this high, and the opposing view is that this strong data will encourage the Fed to tighten policy even more. Some investors supporting this second view have already bet on two more rate hikes this year. The Dow and S&P fell after the data on Friday, even though they are 2.3% and 7.7% up year-to-date.
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