The possibility that Federal Reserve officials will continue on a path of aggressive monetary tightening that has already raised their benchmark short-term interest rate to its highest level since 2008 has grown due to the relative strength of Friday's jobs report.
According to Labor Department data released on Friday, the U.S. economy added 263,000 jobs in September, bringing the unemployment rate down to 3.5%.
Despite a slowdown in hiring last month, the labour market remained robust, with payrolls once more increasing faster than Wall Street anticipated.
In order to cool the employment market, which would reduce Americans' purchasing power and, presumably, lower decades-high inflation, the Fed increased interest rates recently.
the Fed increased interest rates recently. That has not yet happened.
Investors were concerned that a strengthening job market might lead to higher rates when they saw Friday's statistics as a case of bad-good news.