On Friday at 8:30 AM ET, the BLS will release the employment report for December. The consensus is for 70 thousand jobs added, and for the unemployment rate to increase to 6.8%. • ADP Report: The ADP employment report showed a loss of 123,000 private sector jobs, well below the consensus estimate of 88 thousand jobs added. The ADP report hasn’t been very useful in predicting the BLS report, but this suggests the BLS report could be weaker than expected. • ISM Surveys: The ISM manufacturing employment index increased in December to 51.5%, up from 48.4% in November. This would suggest essentially approximately … (full story)