NFP numbers? Not Favoring the Populace. Just 162,000 jobs were added in the month

NFP numbers? Not Favoring the Populace. Just 162,000 jobs were added in the month of July and while a positive number is better than a negative number, everything is relative. Economists expected 180,000 new names on payrolls and considering last month’s numbers hit 188,000 those economists weren’t exactly setting the bar very high. The unemployment rate also fell to 7.4% and while some will argue that’s a good thing, it was reported that 37,000 people simply gave up looking. The news is less than inspiring and given the Feds comments on Wednesday it would seem QE tapering is probably not going to happen as soon as many have come to expect. Following yesterday’s drop in jobless claims and better than expected PMI, emotions are mixed at best. Jobless claims fell to their lowest level since early 2008 (326,000) and the ISM manufacturing index reached 55.4 for the month of July. Gold was trading sub $1300 ahead of the news, reaching as low as $1283 but popped quickly back toward yesterday’s closing levels. The yellow metal now trades $1312. The rest of the complex is higher as well to start the day. Silver up 1.5% to $19.930 while platinum and palladium are both up more than .5% to $1439 and $730 respectively.  Have a great day!