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Amazon’s Jungle, SoftBank's Massive OpenAI Investment, Exclusive: Pres. Trump's New Energy Secretary 02/07/25 artwork

Amazon’s Jungle, SoftBank's Massive OpenAI Investment, Exclusive: Pres. Trump's New Energy Secretary 02/07/25

Squawk on the Street

February 7, 2025

Carl Quintanilla, David Faber and Sara Eisen led off the show with key employment data showing softer-than-expected job growth in January.

Speakers David Faber, Carl Quintanilla, Sara Eisen, Andy Jassy, Megan Casella, Brian Sullivan, Chris Wright

TopicsNewsBusinessInvesting

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David Faber (0:59)

Market insight and analysis. You're listening to the opening bell of CNBC's Squawk on the Street.

Carl Quintanilla (1:10)

Good Friday morning, welcome to Squawk on the Street. I'm Carl Quintanilla with David Faber, Sara Eisen at Post 9 of the New York Stock Exchange. Cramer has the morning off. Futures do lose some opening gains as yields pop on this hotter than expected wage number in the jobs data, although we're back in the green. Biggest year on year rise since last February. Ten year just south of four and a half. Our roadmap begins with Big Tech's big AI spend. Amazon calling it a once in a lifetime opportunity. Meta shares continue their record run, eyeing 15 straight days now of gains.

David Faber (1:41)

Plus DOGE may be stalled. Federal courts are blocking Elon Musk's team from accessing some treasury payments data and they are delaying the federal worker buyout deadline, at least into next week.

Sara Eisen (1:53)

And Energy's trade war risks. We are joined by the brand new US. Energy Secretary to discuss it all this hour.

Carl Quintanilla (2:00)

Let's begin with market reaction though to the jobs number today. 143 is a little bit shy of the 170 we were expecting, but the unemployment rate does fall to 4.0. The wage number, 5 tenths, looking for 3 tenths. And then the year on year at 4.1 did cause some reaction in treasuries.

Sara Eisen (2:16)

Headline number a little bit softer, but details beneath the surface show a strong labor market. I think that's your headline this morning. What's the bond market reacting to? Well, wages, with that 0.5% monthly increase, as you said, was the most we've gotten in about a year. So now we're at 4.1% wage growth from last year. It's a little bit hot. If you go beneath the surface where the jobs are, where the jobs aren't, look, I think, you know, you see it in the services sector. For now, government, I noted, added jobs. Government sector employment rising 32,000, which is actually strong and could be the last of the strong reports if, you know, some of those federal buyouts go into effect. Healthcare did the most hiring as far as sectors, retail trade, social assistance, all strong.

Jobs were lost in mining, boring, oil and gas extraction industry, education and health, big part of the jump. And manufacturing added 3,000 payrolls, which actually jibes with the tick up we've seen in manufacturing lately, although it could be preparing for tariffs. You know, there's been a lot of burst of activity in effect. Bottom line, doesn't change anything for the Fed. Fed's on hold and the Fed's got to feel good about being on hold after this number because, you know, there's some risks in here, like a hotter wage number when it comes to their inflation story. And while the headline number was a little bit weaker, it's nothing too dramatic. You still have a 4% unemployment rate. And that is a fact. And it's very strong.

Carl Quintanilla (3:46)

Not to mention the positive revisions last two months up almost 100K. Interesting. You're right about the vertical leisure hospitality down 3000 We have seen some negative months for leisure and hospitality, but it's not that common.

Sara Eisen (4:00)

No. And that's been a huge job gainer post covid. So, you know, we're still trying to figure out where the baseline is after covid on some of these sectors and consumer spending behaviors as well, you know, trying to adapt to what's going on. The other, you know, this was kind of a weird one because there were so many revisions and population estimates right now. The Household Survey for January has these new population estimates. And it looks like a big jump in the size of the overall labor force, more than two million people, which is only to say that it reflects here incorporating the increased estimates of immigrants that economists have now been talking about. And finally starting to show up in these population estimates. We'll see what happens to that, of course, as well, as we've seen this crackdown. But overall, you know, nothing to worry about necessarily. We knew the job market was cooling. We knew that the Fed policy has been tight for a while. But overall, if you look at a 4 percent unemployment rate, I mean, you go back to that. That's what Neil Khashoggi just went back to as well, with all the details and all the noise. And he said, that shows that we're still in a good place.

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