Was the May jobs report too good for Biden?

The hotter-than-expected May jobs report has impacted broader market trading with major US indexes (^GSPC, ^DJI, ^IXIC) closing slightly in the red.

Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Rick Newman explains how the May jobs report may impact Biden’s campaign and highlights the electorate’s shifting economic priorities.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination Overtime.

This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Video Transcript

You think today’s job report would be a good thing for President Biden?

But is it too good here with more of Yahoo Finance’s own, Rick Newman.

Rick?

I am fascinated to hear the details on this one.

Hey guys, uh look, I mean, more jobs are really not doing President Biden any good at this point.

I mean, he, we’re so far into the point of diminishing returns on his political payback for the great job growth we’ve had under his administration, uh you know, 15 million jobs created so far under Biden the most of any president ever when he brags about it.

It’s true.

Um But that, that is uh I mean, it’s now become very clear, this is not what voters care about.

Voters care about prices and inflation.

And uh uh a strong job market has now become kind of a contrary indicator for inflation as it has for all the things we’re talking about with regard to markets.

I mean, markets for the most part care about uh the strength of the economy because of whether and when the Federal Reserve is going to cut rates, Biden cares about strength of the economy for another reason because I think the main thing he needs, needs in a bullish case for re-election is he needs consumers and voters to see prices either moderating or outright declining uh in the home stretch of this election.

And I think we’re getting the point.

We’re just getting 11 hot number after another on jobs on incomes.

I think we’re at the point where Biden is just not going to get the break on inflation that he wants.

Uh We, we all know the economic argument here, the inflation rate, the annual rate of change has dropped from a high of 9% to 3.4%.

But as consumers remind me every single time I write about this, um yeah, well, maybe the rate is coming down but the prices went up and they’re staying up and everybody has their own personal uh inflation gauge whether it’s uh the price of roast beef or hamburger or milk or your rent.

Uh Gasoline is obviously an important one and I, I just think Biden is not going to hit the break he’s hoping for, which is that voters see tangible signs that prices are coming down.

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So he’s just going to have to deal with that doesn’t mean he’s going to lose, but I think it does mean we’re just not going to see any meaningful increase in Biden’s approval rating which is really low around 40%.

Um and he’s just going to have to deal with that.

Yeah, lots of moving parts here and we will keep track of it all.

Thank you, Rick Newman.