U.S. Unemployment Drops to 3.7%, Stocks and Cryptocurrencies Show Mixed Performance

Stocks and cryptocurrencies had a mixed performance on Friday as investors faced new earnings and economic data, Blockworks reported. Friday's jobs report showed an unexpected drop in the unemployment rate to 3.7%, with 353,000 new jobs created in January. Nonetheless, initial jobless claims remain below summer levels, according to the Fed's economic data. While a healthy labour market is usually good news, Friday's unexpectedly strong report could mean that investors need to reassess their expectations for when the Fed will start cutting interest rates. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that a weaker labour market would lead the central bank to cut rates sooner, while "stickier or higher" inflation data would delay the timetable for a rate cut.The report cut expectations for a March rate cut to 20% from 40%, according to CME Group. However, stocks continued to trend higher on Friday following the release of the latest labour data. Before the close, the SP 500 and Nasdaq Composite were up 1 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively, driven by large tech stocks with good earnings performances from Amazon and the Meta platform. On the other hand, cryptocurrencies slumped on Friday, with bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) down about 0.5 per cent each at the time of publication. Nonetheless, both maintained modest gains for the week, but remain in decline since the beginning of the year.