FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve building is pictured in Washington, DC, U.S., August 22, 2018. REUTERS/Chris Wattie/File Photo
U.S. employers added 128,000 jobs last month, a slower pace than earlier in the year but many more than economists had expected, a Labor Department report showed Friday. Futures contracts on short-term interest rates fell in response, as traders cut bets on any more rate cuts this year and pushed out further, to June, bets on the Fed to do any more easing.
But with a U.S.-China trade war still simmering and global economies slowing, traders have continued to price in a better-than-even chance the Fed will need to do more by next March to keep the U.S. economy, now in a record 11th year of growth, from slipping. After the jobs report, traders reduced bets on a March rate cut, leaving June rate cut as a more likely scenario.