“Nothing was all that surprising from the minutes,” said Stephanie Roth, senior markets economist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. “The Fed is watching closely, not just the unemployment rate, but they’re really focusing on bringing back the population that has fallen out of the labor force.”
The minutes are from a Fed meeting that came before last week’s March jobs report, which showed a surprisingly strong 916,000 positions were added that month, the most since August, and the unemployment rate fell to 6% from 6.2%.
The broader market has been mostly subdued since the S&P 500 reached another record high on Monday. Stocks within the index are just about evenly split between gainers and losers.
Analysts expect the recovery to continue, but they also expect the market remain choppy as investors shift money to companies and industries that stand to benefit as the pandemic eases.
Carnival, which essentially shut down during the pandemic, rose 1.3%. The company said bookings have picked up. Other cruise line operators also gained ground as they plan to restart operations.
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