Companies added more workers to payrolls in February, the Labor Dept. reports. Private-sector payrolls increased 227,000 last month, modestly higher than January’s revised 221,000 advance. A second month of robust expansion of the labor market gives the Federal Reserve another reason to hike rates at next week’s monetary policy meeting. But while the monthly change has rebounded this year after weak growth in 2016’s third quarter, the year-over-year trend was unchanged last month, holding at a relatively subdued increase.
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The 10-year Treasury yield ticked up to 2.60% on Thursday… again. The benchmark rate reached that level in December (the highest since 2014) following the reflationary wave that followed Donald Trump’s election victory. But yields pulled back in 2017… until yesterday.
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