Source: US Dept. of Treasury End of Day
• The yield curve again, continued steepening with the two-year Treasury note increasing by two basis points to 0.14% while the five-year note increased by seven basis points to 0.80%.
• The February jobs report impressed as the economy added 379 thousand to payrolls, leisure and hospitality led the way in job gains as the unemployment rate fell by 0.1% to 6.2%.
• Despite the impressive jobs report, the job market has a long way to go as the labor participation rate remains at a 40-year low at 61.7%, and while there are still 9.4 million less workers earning a traditional income now than prior to the pandemic.
• Fed Chair J. Powell commented in an interview last Thursday that the recent increase in yields had not gone unnoticed, but that the abrupt change was not disruptive enough to warrant a response or shift in policy.
