This week, there are several key macroeconomic data points that need to be closely monitored, with the most critical being the non-farm payroll report released on Tuesday evening.
First, let's discuss the data itself. The unemployment rate for September is 4.4%, with non-farm payrolls adding 119,000 jobs. However, this release is a bit special—the unemployment rate and non-farm data for October are missing.
Why is this the case? The reason is the rare government shutdown in U.S. history. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was unable to collect household survey data (which is the basis for calculating the unemployment rate) during the shutdown, resulting in the inability to gather October's data. Even more frustrating is that this data cannot be collected retroactively. Therefore, the Bureau's final decision was to merge the originally planned separate release of the October non-farm report into the November data.
This means that the non-farm data and unemployment rate announced tomorrow actually combine data from both October and November. This certainly increases the volatility and points of interest in the data.
From a market outlook perspective, considering the Federal Reserve's meeting stance on December 9 and Chairman Powell's comments on the labor market, the likelihood of positive non-farm data is quite high. If the data indeed exceeds expectations, coupled with the Federal Reserve's technical balance sheet expansion of $40 billion each month—though strictly speaking, this does not count as quantitative easing, it will certainly increase market liquidity—this will have a noticeable supportive effect on the stock market and cryptocurrency sector.
Historically, whenever liquidity increases and employment data is favorable, risk assets often experience a wave of upward momentum. The combination of factors this time seems relatively friendly to risk assets.
Whether the new jobs added in November can exceed 150,000 is a key indicator to watch, although the probability is extremely low, if it does occur, it would have a stronger stimulating effect on the market. In summary, tomorrow's data release is worth close tracking.