© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell answers a question at a press conference following a closed two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on interest rate policy at the Federal Reserve in Washington, U.S., November 1, 2023.
Traders on Friday moved to price a smaller chance of Federal Reserve interest-rate hike in coming months after a government report showed U.S. employers hired fewer workers last month and the unemployment rate rose, signs tighter policy is slowing growth.
The chance of a Fed rate hike by January fell to around 20% after the report, versus about 30% before the report, based on prices of futures contracts that settle to the Fed policy rate. Pricing now reflects a better-than-even chance of a rate hike by May, against earlier expectations for rate cuts to start in June.