Stock Market

u.s: The Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added 266,000 new jobs in November, well-above the 180,000 figure that had been the consensus expectation of economists surveyed by Market Watch You'd have thought that this news would have upset investors, since it both reduces the likelihood the Federal Reserve will reduce rates and perhaps even increases the likelihood of an increase, according to Market Watch. In the wake of the jobs report, for example, gold bullion dropped 1.3% as investors realized that higher rates would cause the U.S. dollar DXY, -0.05% to strengthen. That's clear because of how the U.S. stock market reacted in the immediate wake of the better-than-expected December jobs report, released the morning of Dec. 6. The stock market was a different story, as you can see from the accompanying chart. What this means, according to a landmark study from two decades ago Investors collectively are now more concerned about a U.S. economic downturn than about higher rates. Far from dropping, stocks rallied sharply on Friday rising nearly as much as gold fell. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.