In his Daily Market Notes report to investors, while commenting on fighting inflation, Louis Navellier wrote:
Q3 2021 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
Disappointing Jobs Report
The big surprise this week was that the Labor Department reported on Friday that only 210,000 payroll jobs were created in November, which was a massive disappointment since economists were expecting 550,000 payroll jobs. However, due to a shrinking workforce, the unemployment rate declined to 4.2% in November. The October and September payroll reports were revised up to 546,000 and 379,000, respectively.
Interestingly, the labor force participation rate rose to 61.8% in November but is still below the 63.3% labor force participation rate prior to the pandemic. Average hourly earnings rose to $31.03 per hour in November and have risen 4.8% in the past 12 months. Overall, November represented the slowest monthly payroll growth this year, but due to a shrinking workforce and lower unemployment rate, the Fed should pivot from trying to restore the approximately 2.4 million civilian jobs lost since the pandemic commenced and move on to fight inflation.
Fighting Inflation In 2022
Speaking of the Fed, Chairman Jerome Powell, who was just reappointed for a second term, before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday admitted that “The risk of higher inflation has increased.” Furthermore, Powell concluded by saying “To get back to the kind of great labor market we had before the pandemic, we’re going to need … price stability.” Translated from Fedspeak, Chairman Powell basically admitted that the Fed is finally getting ready to pivot from its unemployment mandate to its inflation mandate.
Chairman Powell also hinted that the Fed may further reduce its quantitative easing by saying “The economy is very strong and inflationary pressures are high, and it is therefore appropriate in my view to consider wrapping up the taper of our asset purchases … perhaps a few months sooner.” So the Fed Chairman is starting to lay the groundwork for fighting inflation in the New Year. Amazingly, the 10-year Treasury bond yield fell below 1.5% as the Fed Chairman spoke in front of the Senate Banking Committee.
Heard and Notable
An Italian man turned up at a vaccination center wearing a fake silicone arm, hoping to fool a nurse into giving him a jab in order to obtain a COVID-19 health certificate. The man worked in the health sector and had been suspended from his job because he had refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Source: Reuters
