Employment Situation
The problem came in the blowout payroll number that also included an upward revision to April and March. This morning’s release showed a surprisingly high 339,000 new jobs were added to the economy while the previous two months were revised higher by a total of 93,000. This was actually the 14th consecutive month that the payroll number came in above what analysts were expecting. In general, employment strength is bad news for long-term securities such as mortgage bonds. But in this cycle of Fed rate hikes, strong employment allows them to remain aggressive with their increases to ease inflation. These payroll numbers are drawing the most attention and are fueling this morning’s bond selling.