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Some Common Cents for January 10th 2014

This morning the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Employment Situation report for December 2013.  While it wasn’t an absolute disaster, I think it would fair to say the report didn’t live up to virtually anyone’s expectations. Simply put, the US economy created 74K net, new payroll jobs last month.

The median estimate in Bloomberg’s survey of 90 analysts was for 197K, and the average estimate was 196K. The high was 250K; the low was 100K, and the standard deviation of all estimates was 25K. So, that 74K number was way out of whack with what the investment/financial/academic communities were anticipating…Read On…

The opinions expressed within this report are those of John Norris as of the initial publication of this blog. They are subject to change without notice, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oakworth Capital Bank, its directors, shareholders, and employees.