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Eamonn earlier noted that US President Joe Biden has been scheduled to speak about the jobs report at 11:30 am ET.
A few things to keep in mind:
- The White House gets the jobs number on Thursday afternoon
- This speech wasn’t scheduled until after that time
- Biden doesn’t speak after every jobs report
To me this looks like a dead giveaway. Now, he could be speaking to downplay a weak report but that’s usually the job of deputies and I highly doubt if he would be out there if it was a negative print. Now this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a great report because a number right on consensus is still 170K jobs and with unemployment down to 3.7% from 3.8%.
The appearance also helps to explain some of the USD strength today, though it’s fading at the moment.
For more, see: Non-farm payrolls preview: Jobs report set to land in a fragile market