Stocks Fall on Small Payroll Increase (Bloomberg)
U.S. stocks took a sizable fall today due to data showing that jobs added in March were less than half of what economists predicted. “This report is a huge disappointment,” Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Philadelphia-based Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, said. “This will spook the market and it obviously means that the Fed will remain on vigil with regards to the highly accommodative monetary policy.”
Consumer Credit Has Most Growth in Half a Year (CNBC)
With consumers borrowing money for purposes including cars and student loans, February was home to the biggest increase in consumer credit in six months. That number grew by over $18 billion, beating economist estimates of $15 billion in credit growth.
Dollar, Yen Decline (Reuters)
Thanks to the aforementioned jobs data, the dollar fell to two-week low versus the euro. “This data interrupts the strong dollar trend against the euro for example, but medium-term, I am not convinced that this weakness in the dollar will continue,” said Federico Garcia Zamora, director of currency strategies and senior portfolio manager at Standish Asset Management in Boston. Meanwhile, Japan’s continued monetary easing led the yen down further against both the dollar and the euro.
