Finance & economics | Knocking off work

Traders lose interest in America’s jobs report

Markets react less to jobs data than they did before the financial crisis

BY 9.30PM ON the first Friday of the month, the bars in Marunouchi, Tokyo’s financial district, used to empty out as foreign-exchange traders returned to their desks. London’s investment bankers, back from lunch, would be sharp and alert, helped by a rare early night. All awaited perhaps the world’s most important data release: America’s jobs report.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Knocking off work”

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