• 34ºc, Sunny

Santander: if the employment data in August is strong, the Fed may dispel the idea of cutting interest rates by 50 basis points

In his speech at the Jackson Hole conference, Federal Reserve Chairperson Jerome Powell stressed the importance of the U.S. jobs data for the upcoming monetary easing cycle. This adds to the importance of the August jobs data, which will be released on September 6, Stephen Stanley of Santander said in a note. He said the August growth would not be a complete shock after the unexpectedly subdued job growth in July. More broadly, Powell and others at the Fed have recently begun to express concern about cooling labor market conditions, so the stronger August data could dispel the idea of a 50 basis point rate cut next month. Stanley believes that the employment report may be more crucial than the core CPI data for August.