Analysing the December chill in new jobs

THIS week, traders will look at earnings and sales reports to divine whether a shockingly bad December jobs report was a function of the weather or of a faltering economy.

US employers added a mere 74,000 jobs in December, well shy of the roughly 200,000 forecast by Wall Street economists, according to a Labor Department survey. The workforce may be in hibernation rather than decline, however. Building sites across the South and Midwest of the country shut down for a week or more during bitter winter storms. Even more severe winter storms have now descended in the north and north-east of the US, suggesting that January data may also be weak.

"Much of it is being attributed to bad weather", which kept job seekers at home, said Quincy Krosby, investment strategist at Prudential Financial. "Many top economists who do this for a living think the number will be revised upwards."