Solid jobs report keeps US Fed rate cuts at bay

Latest US labour market data reinforces central bank's wait-and-see approach

- COLBY SMITH

A stable labour market fortifies the Federal Reserve's case that it does not need to be in a hurry to lower borrowing costs, keeping the central bank on course to extend its pause on interest rate cuts when it meets later this month.

June's jobs report, which showed employers adding 147,000 jobs for the month and the unemployment rate ticking down to 4.1%, underscores the economy's resilience and helps to dispel the notion that it is in need of immediate support.

"There is no urgency," said Priya Misra, a portfolio manager at JP Morgan Asset Management. "They can keep pushing it out in the future," she added on the timing of the Fed's next rate cut.

The latest sign of a relatively sturdy labour market comes as President Donald Trump continues his attacks on Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, and the central bank more broadly for resisting his demands to immediately lower borrowing costs by a significant amount.

Just in the past week, Trump called on Mr Powell to resign and penned him a handwritten note blaming him for costing the country a "fortune." Part of the president's ire stems from the Fed keeping interest rates at current levels at a time when the government is trying to pass a massive package of tax cuts that is expected to balloon the deficit and increase what it costs the government to cover interest payments on the national debt.