Jobs report, retailers’ holiday sales may shake

Jobs report, retailers’ holiday sales may shake stocks
Friday’s nonfarm-payrolls report comes ahead of Fed’s December meeting
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — After the stock market’s strong gains in November, investors will focus next week on the government’s jobs report and early reads on holiday shopping.

“It’s a very busy week for data in general — what I would call a feast for the Fed in terms of the amount of data,” said Kristina Hooper, a U.S. investment strategist for Allianz Global Investors.

The Labor Department’s report on November nonfarm payrolls will cap a data-heavy week on Friday. It’s the last such report before the Federal Reserve’s Dec. 17-18 policy-setting meeting. If the employment data are much stronger than expected, the Fed might decide at that meeting to scale back its $85 billion-a-month in bond buying that has boosted equities, according to Hooper.

“I would say it’s very unlikely, but this is our last big piece of data,” she told MarketWatch.

Hooper said Allianz strategists, like most market watchers, anticipate a March tapering of the central bank’s bond-buying program. For Friday’s jobs report, economists polled by MarketWatch expect a rise of 180,000 payrolls, as the unemployment rate dips to 7.2% from 7.3% in October. " target="_blank"> http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jobs-report-...atest_news