The U.S. economy added a whopping 303,000 jobs in March beating economists’ expectations of about 200,000 jobs. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.8%. This news coupled with the rising inflation numbers mean more inflation ahead and no interest rate cuts this year. As I noted in this space last December, again last February and again last month, the Federal Reserve will not cut interest rates at all this year.
And there is a strong possibility that the Fed may even raise interest rates once or even twice before the end of year. The reason is simple: the inflation problem is still here and worsening. The data since last December indicates the inflation rate is increasing no matter what inflation gauge the Fed looks at. The Fed likes the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE). They want this number to fall to 2%. The PCE is currently 2.5% with the core PCE at 2.8