First woman to be the Chairperson…
February 03, 2014
The top spot at the Federal Reserve Bank of the U.S. switches to former Vice Chair Janet Yellen from outgoing Chief Ben Bernanke today. Ms. Yellen is the first woman to be the Chairperson in its 100-year history and will guide the nation through the post recession era of the U.S. economy.
In economic news, the January ISM Manufacturing Index was released this morning and came in lower that expectations at 51.3 versus the 56.0 expected to the slowest pace in 10-months. Within the report it showed that the new orders component fell 13.2 points to 51.2, also the lowest since May. The hiring gauge fell by 3.5 points to 52.3. The decline was due in part to unusually poor weather in January.
The big economic report due for release this week is the January Jobs report, which consists of Non-farm Payrolls and the Unemployment Rate. Payrolls are expected to rise by 175,000, after the weak reading in December of only 74,000 jobs created. The Unemployment Rate is expected is expected to drop to 6.5% from 6.7%. The report will be released Friday at 8:30am ET.
