Placid Percentage

Friday’s August jobs report, showing just 151,000 net new jobs, slowing hourly earnings growth of 0.1%, the loss of 6,000 construction jobs, and a slight reduction in average hours worked/week, has reduced the probability of a Fed rate rise of 25 basis points (0.25%) at the September meeting to 20%. But, with the economy continuing to slowly improve, the data-dependent Fed will, barring a disaster, raise rates in December.