If year-on-year total and core CPI consumer inflation rates accelerate, financial markets risk turbulence as investors’ 2025 interest rate cut expectations fall further.

The U.S. job market again defied an anticipated slowdown, with firms adding more than a quarter of a million jobs in the last full month of Joe Biden's presidency and leaving Federal Reserve policymakers to puzzle over the need for more interest rate cuts in a strong economy.

The latest snapshot of the US labor market affirmed what Federal Reserve officials have made clear in recent days: Interest-rate cuts are on hold for the foreseeable future.

The US economy defied expectations in December, adding 256,000 nonfarm payroll jobs, surpassing economists forecast of 164,000 and Novembers revised 212,000 increase. The unemployment rate dipped to 4.

US employers added a surprisingly strong 256,000 jobs in December, dimming hopes that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates anytime soon — which sparked a sell-off on Wall Street. The blowout number from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics — a massive jump from the month before that economists took as a sign the job market is recovering from a mid-2024 stumble — pushed back traders’ bets for the central bank to cut rates to September