US economy adds 275,000 jobs in February

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The US economy added 275,000 jobs in February, beating expectations, but January’s strong number was sharply downgraded.

Non-farm payrolls figures published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday surpassed economists’ expectations of 200,000 new jobs.

But the BLS also downgraded the number for January from an initial reading of 353,000 to 229,000.

It added that February’s unemployment rate rose to 3.9 per cent, compared with 3.7 per cent the month before.

As traders in the futures market reacted to the scale of the downgrade of January’s blockbuster figures, they fully priced in a quarter-point interest rate cut for June, shifting forward their expectations.

Bond yields dipped and stocks ticked up. The two-year Treasury yield, which moves with interest rate expectations, dropped slightly, leaving it down 0.08 percentage points on the day at 4.43 per cent. 

S&P 500 futures rose slightly, up 0.1 per cent.  

On Thursday US Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell said the US central bank was “not far” from having the confidence to start lowering borrowing costs, as it awaited more concrete evidence inflation is on track to hit its 2 per cent target.

This is a developing story