US companies added workers at a blistering pace in February, according to the ADP Employment Report. Private payrolls increased 298,000, far above the 183,000 consensus forecast via Econoday.com. The gain is the strongest monthly increase in nearly three years. Today’s update also lifted the year-over-year trend in payrolls for the second straight month. If the bullish data is confirmed in Friday’s official jobs report from Washington, the news will further boost confidence for expecting that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at next week’s monetary policy meeting.
Continue reading →

Yes, according to Tuesday’s revised GDP estimates from the Atlanta Fed and CNBC’s Rapid Update survey data. The Capital Spectator’s new economic projection is also anticipating a weaker pace of growth vs. last year’s fourth quarter. It’s too early to say for sure if the weaker forecasts are accurate (quite a lot of Q1 data is still a mystery at this point). But it’s fair to say that the prospects for a robust firming in the macro trend in the kick-off to 2017 is looking a bit wobbly compared with the previous review of GDP estimates from two weeks ago.
Continue reading →