So, the key will be to listen closely for any further remarks of this sort from other members of the Fed in the coming weeks.
Are we reading too much into these statement? Quite possibly, yes as it could indeed be a coincidence that the two Fed Presidents were talking about a similar idea. But then again, with the Fed under fire, we can't help but believe that this will be something to pay attention to in the coming months.
Turning to this morning, we can put yesterday behind us as we've got the Big Kahuna of economic data – the monthly Jobs Report – so let's get to right to it. In short, this jobs report was a big surprise - in a good way. Nonfarm payrolls for November were reported down just -11K, which was significantly below the consensus for job losses totaling -125K and the whisper numbers for an even higher number.
Next up, the Unemployment Rate, which shocked investors last month and was the subject of much discussion yesterday, actually fell to 10.0% from last month's reading of 10.2% and was also below the consensus for 10.2% .
But wait, there's more… October Nonfarm Payrolls were revised to -111K from -190K and September was revised to -139K from -219K. Thus, when you add in the revisions to the September numbers, the economy lost 159,000 fewer jobs than had been anticipated.
Finally, we should note that the November Nonfarm Payroll number is the best since the date the recession began in December 2007.
Running through the rest of the pre-game indicators, overseas markets were mixed. Crude futures are higher with the latest quote showing oil trading up by $0.55 to $77.15. On the interest rate front, we've got the yield on the 10-yr trading at 3.47%, while the yield on the 3-month T-Bill is currently at 0.05%. In addition, gold is down $22.50 and the dollar is weaker against the Yen, and Pound but up against the Euro. Finally, with about 45 minutes before the bell, stock futures in the U.S. are pointing to a much higher open. The Dow futures are currently ahead by about 100 points; the S&P's are up about 12 points, while the NASDAQ looks to be about 19 points above fair value at the moment.