The keenly awaited US jobs report has provoked a volatile reaction from the stock market, as investors tried to read the runes of the figures.
Already weaker on concerns about the debt crisis in Greece spreading across Europe to the likes of Spain and Portugal, the FTSE 100 was down around 76 points immediately ahead of the 1.30 release of the non-farm payroll numbers.
In the event, US employers cut 20,000 jobs in January rather than the increase expected by the market. In truth, the range was so wide that the consensus was for a 27,000 rise but it veered from positive to negative.
If the raw number was – overall – disappointing then the unemployment rate edged down from 10% to a five-month low of 9.7%, when everyone was expecting a slight increase to 10.1%.
Apart from suggesting that once more the experts were not exactly on the ball, the figures sent the market scrambling for direction.
The initial reaction from the FTSE was to show a 100-point fall, but this soon pulled back to a decline of just over 50 points. At the moment the index is down 59.50 at 5079.81. The US futures have recovered from suggesting a 70-point fall at the open to a 7-point decline.
Once thing is certain, however, and that is the market's uncertainty.
