Ross cast aspersions about the BLS releasing the July jobs report shortly after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.
Former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Monday reportedly called into question the timing of the latest jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Ross cast aspersions about the BLS releasing the July jobs report shortly after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, where the central bank decided to keep interest rates unchanged despite mounting pressure from President Donald Trump.
Ross, who is a Republican and served as the 39th Secretary of Commerce from 2017 to 2021, said if the jobs report were released before the Federal Reserve made its decision, a rate cut would have been more likely.
“I think what is a little bit suspicious about the most recent BLS data is that [it] came out shortly after the … FOMC meeting, where Trump was hoping to get rates reduced,” he said, according to the interview.
“Remember, just before the presidential election, they also had two months of very good labor results. And then a day or two after the election, they made a massive correction in both months,” Ross added, while disclaiming that he does not know if the data were correct.
Earlier, Senator Elizabeth Warren warned that the firing of the BLS Commissioner would result in people wondering about the integrity of BLS data, regardless of whether the next report is better or worse.
Meanwhile, U.S. equities surged in Monday’s midday trade. At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, was up 1.33%, while the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) surged 1.73%. Retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF on Stocktwits was in the ‘neutral’ territory.
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