Weekly Market Commentary 12/2/2016

Friday’s employment report had a little bit of Clint Eastwood in it – featuring the good, the bad, and the ugly. The “good” parts of the report will probably dominate the headlines. In November, the unemployment rate fell from 4.9% to 4.6%, the lowest since August 2007 and below what historically has been consistent with a fully employed labor market. Complementing the low jobless rate, the economy generated a decent number of jobs during the month. The 178,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls was spot-on with market expectations and remarkably consistent with the 180,000 average monthly gain so far in 2016.