Factbox-Wall Street sees bigger 2024 Fed easing after soft jobs report
A surprisingly weak U.S. employment report for June has turned Wall Street confidence on a soft landing into near panic that a recession is looming, prompting major firms to change forecasts for Federal Reserve easing this year to more aggressive interest rate cutting. Employers added just 114,000 jobs in July, the U.S. Labor Department reportedon Friday, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, from 4.1% in June, marking an unexpected deterioration in a labor market that had held up surprisingly well during the Federal Reserve's aggressive rate-hike campaign in 2022 and 2023.