Homeless man goes berserk on subway platform, stabbing passengers, plus mass shooting and the latest jobs report

**Christy Strawser** (0:01)
Welcome to On Deadline, your radio news from Audacy newsrooms across the country.
I'm Christy Strawser, Audacy's managing editor of news. Let's kick it off with something we all care about, jobs, money, the economy. Tommy Tucker at WWL in New Orleans sorts out the latest confusing jobs report.

**Tommy Tucker** (0:18)
Jason Shields, the COO of Gulf Coast Bank and Trust. Boy, when it comes to investing, it's about the next thing and looking down the line and anticipating, is it not?

**Jason Shields** (0:27)
Yeah, it is, Tommy.
Last week was somewhat interesting for the markets, and I think this week is going to be interesting as well. So we got a May jobs report that was really interesting. And I don't want to turn this into a jobs report conversation, because I know we talk about that often, but that number was 172
That's a big number, right? You and I talked about this in the past, and we haven't been numbers that big, but when everybody peeled that back, there were some interesting things in that 172,000 jobs that were added. 70,000 of those were in hospitality, and 48,000 of that 70 were actually in restaurants. When you stop and think about it, it's actually the World Cup is coming up, and it's going to be huge in the hospitality and the restaurant space. So you can contribute a big chunk of that jobs report growth to hospitality jobs that are just because of the World Cup that's coming. Now, it doesn't mean it's a bad number. It is still a good number, but when you listen to some of the market pundits, they said, oh, the jobs market is incredibly strong. We're going to have a rate hike. And so that kind of start that sell off that you saw on Friday. So that's just a high level overview of kind of what we saw. I mean, look, a good jobs number, regardless of what industry they come in, and that's good news for us.

**Tommy Tucker** (1:42)
Wait, let me slow down a minute. So the jobs report was good, which means the Fed was going to not cut the interest rate, which affected Wall Street. Are they right or not?

**Jason Shields** (1:55)
So when you see a strong jobs report, Tommy, what that means is if that unemployment number starts getting low, remember, the Fed uses raising interest rates as a way to slow it down if things get too hot, right? So the market saw an incredibly strong jobs report and said, well, the odds of the Fed raising interest rates this year are going to go up, right? They went, actually, the futures market on that went from a 40% chance of a rate hike this year to 70%.
Now, we don't know, right? We still haven't heard anything from the Fed. It's going to be an interesting meeting when they get together. But I imagine they're really going to be talking about this jobs data. So once, and don't forget, we have a new Fed chair, too. So this will be the first time that we hear from Kevin Warsh and see what his feelings are about the job market, about inflation. So we'll be talking about that again in the next couple of weeks.

**Tommy Tucker** (2:46)
Let me ask you real quick, Jason, does the chairman decide whether or not to raise rates or is it a vote?

**Jason Shields** (2:52)
Yeah, so that is a big misconception, Tommy. And so the chairman is one vote, right? They are one vote. And there's a committee that decides where we go with those rates. Now, why does the chair matter so much? Because the chair's statements are going to carry incredible power when it comes to the market or anyone who's looking at those things. So when we get those first statements from Kevin Warsh, as far as what they're seeing and what they're doing, that goes a long way to where he feels that the committee as a whole is going. But no, he individually, one person, does not have the ability to pull that lever and change those rates for us. Now, another thing I wanted to touch on, because last week was a pretty wild week for Bitcoin. And I don't think a ton of our listeners are big Bitcoin investors, but this does matter somewhat, because for better or for worse, Bitcoin has become a part of the market as a whole.
It became that darling, which was hard to get 10 years ago, now to the point where you can just go in and buy index funds that have Bitcoin. So last week, Bitcoin dropped about 20% in that week. Now, that's a pretty scary stat. I've always talked about this to you before, Tommy. Bitcoin is a specular investment best, and it's not something that you should take lightly. But another shocking stat is, in October 2025, it was at its highest point, which is $126,000.