The U.S. labor market stood strong against headwinds in October.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 128,000 last month, higher than consensus estimates for an 85,000 gain. October’s payrolls beat expectations despite a 42,000 slide in automaker payrolls, largely from the General Motors strike. August and September’s job gains were also revised up by 95,000.

As shown in the LPL Chart of the Day, payrolls have grown an average of 175,000 over the past 12 months, around the average pace for this economic expansion.

Solid October jobs data shows the engine of the U.S. economy is humming along despite ele

The Federal Reserve (Fed) could be three and done with interest rate cuts.

On October 30, the Fed reduced interest rates by 25 basis points (0.25%) in its third rate cut of the economic cycle. While the headline decision was dovish, the Fed signaled this could be the last rate cut for a while. The clearest hint was policymakers’ removal of language stating they would “act as appropriate to sustain the expansion.” Going forward, the Fed will now “assess the appropriate path of the target range for the federal funds rate.”

Fed Chair Jerome Powell doubled down on this notion in his post-mee

Gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed for a third quarter, but the U.S. economy is still chugging along at an average pace.

GDP grew 1.9% in the third quarter, its slowest pace of growth since the fourth quarter of 2018, as shown in the LPL Chart of the Day. Still, GDP increased 2% year over year last quarter, slightly below 2.1% year-over-year average growth since the cycle started in July 2009.

The composition of growth last quarter showed U.S. consumers pulled the economy along once again. Consumer spending contributed 1.9 percentage points to the GDP increase during the quarter, while governmen

The Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) is widely expected to cut interest rates on Wednesday, October 30, which would be the third cut this year after nine consecutive hikes.

The current fed funds rate target is 1.75–2%, with a 25 basis point cut likely happening this week. As discussed in Market Tricks and Treats, we think there will be only one more rate cut this year, and we don’t expect the Fed to take its policy rate below 1.5%, even in 2020.

It is important to note that the Fed started new cycles of rate cuts in 2001 and 2007 with 50 basis point cuts, implying they were more worried than they were letting o