Investors shouldn’t worry about the Federal Reserve raising interest rates following the release of the latest U.S. employment report, said Jim Cramer of CNBC.
According to figures from the Ministry of Labor released on Friday, companies hired 916,000 workers in the past month. However, the report also showed that the average hourly wage fell 4 cents in March.
Wages will be a key component for the Fed to measure inflation, the Mad Money host said.
“Professional money managers crave growth without wage inflation, and that’s exactly what we got … nirvana for stocks,” said Cramer. “This type of work report gives Fed Chairman Jay Powell the green light to keep rates low.”
“I like [Powell’s] Hand more than the inflationists right now because nothing is more important to stocks and bonds than the report from the non-agricultural department of labor that we only received on Friday, “Cramer said.
Cramer also pointed to a fall in oil prices as a reason for the Fed to keep interest rates at historically low levels. West Texas Intermediate Futures fell more than 4% on Monday.
Because of these elements, Cramer says Powell will stick to his plan to keep interest rates low until the economy recovers from last year’s pandemic downturn.
The comments came after stocks rallied to open the first full week of the second quarter. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each rose more than 1% to new record highs. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite outperformed the Dow and S&P 500, up 1.7%, and is now roughly 3% below its February record.