US NFP: Nonfarm Payrolls in March Blast Off to 228,000, Eclipsing Consensus Calls

Hiring was robust in March, contrary to analyst expectations who were projecting an increase in jobs by 137,000.

🗽 US Jobs Grow More Than Expected

• America’s job market grew by 228,000 new hires in March, according to the latest nonfarm payrolls report USNFP. The data was actually a nice uplifting breeze amid all the tariff drama that’s now resulting in historical market meltdowns. But is that fresh breath of air enough to douse out the dumpster fire in stocks?
• While hiring picked up pace and topped the 137,000 jobs expected for the month, the unemployment rate increased to 4.2% from 4.1%. If anything, the job growth could cushion some of the blow coming from Trump’s tariffs, at least temporarily.

🔥 Market Rout Set to Continue

• These 228,000 people tapped for jobs last month compensated for the revised 117,000 in February. But that’s all a short-term blip (congrats to all who got employed!) in the bigger picture where Donald Trump’s tariff policy is already eating into the stock market and denting supply chains all around.
• A total of $3.1 trillion was wiped out on Thursday with a $2 trillion chunk of the S&P 500 missing by the end of the session. And, by the looks of it, the market freakout, panic selling, growth scare and just plain mayhem is bound to continue.

🦶 Futures Dive on China Kickback

• Early on Friday, China hit back against the US, imposing its own 34% tariff rate on all American imports. The measure sought to retaliate against the 54% tariffs slapped by Trump a day earlier.
• Stock futures sold off ahead of the opening bell with Dow Jones futures shedding more than 1,200 points, or 3%. Futures on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were also lower by 3%. Still, the reassuring jobs reading helped trim those implied losses to the range of 2.5% to 2.8% before the cash session kicked off.