Trump breaks protocol, sends markets clear signal on jobs report before numbers released
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Friday broke with decades of protocol and commented publicly about the highly anticipated jobs report data 69 minutes before they were released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Treasury yields moved sharply higher within seconds of a Twitter post from President Trump that said he was "looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning." He has never issued such a Twitter post before.
One hour and nine minutes later, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that 223,000 jobs were created in May, beating expectations, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent.
Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)Th> jobs data come out once a month, and often can lead to massive buying or selling trends on Wall Street depending on how the information is received. It is extremely closely held and kept under tight control until it is released at 8:30 a.m. on the first Friday of each month. The chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers is traditionally given the report the day before it is released, and it can often be shared with the president after that time. But the president - and other administration officials - never tip their hand about what the numbers reveal.
A positive jobs report does not necessarily mean the stock market will go up, as investors could see it as a signal that the Federal Reserve will move more aggressively to raise interest rates in an effort to keep the economy from overheating.
Still, giving the market any kind of clue ahead of time is extremely unusual. A federal rule from 1985 prohibits any federal worker from commenting on the jobs report for at least one hour after its release, though the Trump administration has breached that standard a few times by commenting less than an hour after the release. But they never appeared to comment before the report came out like Trump did on Friday.
Jason Furman tweeted "You should have gotten the employment numbers from the Council of Economic Advisers yesterday.
"And if this tweet is conveying inside information about a particularly good jobs number you should never get them in advance from the Council of Economic Advisers again."
White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Trump's tweet.
Trump has tried to tie the success of his presidency to the success of the economy. The economy has strengthened during his time in office, though many metrics are mostly consistent with the post-financial crisis recovery that began in 2009. Unemployment has steadily improved, economic growth has ticked up slightly, and wage growth has been slight.