Today's Scoop:

Hey friends, February is here. Rabbit, rabbit. 🐇🐇

Here's what you need to know today...

1. There are plenty of available jobs.

2. Layoffs are near record lows.

3. Policymakers raised interest rates again.

S&P 500: 4,119.211Mo: +8% | 1Yr: -10% | 5Yr: +49%

The market jumped today after the Federal Reserve's new policy announcement.

Policymakers are happy with the way the economy is trending. The Fed raised baseline interest rates by 0.25%, the smallest hike in this campaign to cool the overheating economy. [🤓] The Fed Chairman confirmed higher interest rates are slowing inflation, but the jobs market is still out of balance. The economy is running too hot, and there aren't enough workers to fill those needs.

There are plenty of available jobs. The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey reported a resurgence in new job postings in December. There are 1.9 open positions for every unemployed person, nearly a record high.

Layoffs are really low too. The same report showed the number of newly unemployed was close to record lows of 1.5 million in December. There have been a lot of big corporate layoff announcements this month, so we'll see if that continues for January. The Labor Department will release the official January jobs report on Friday.

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• BP dials back its renewable energy ambitions

• Snapchat needs more advertisers

• Peloton says its back from the brink

• Intel slashes executive pay

• T-Mobile isn't seeing a slowdown

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Federal Reserve & Inflation

The Federal Reserve, aka the Central Bank, aka The Fed, is in charge of our whole money system. When the economy is struggling, the Fed lowers baseline interest rates to make it cheaper for consumers and businesses to borrow and spend. The Fed also pumps more money into the system by buying bonds with new dollars that it essentially speaks into existence. The additional cash keeps the pipes flowing as the borrowing and spending heat up, stimulating economic activity.

Once the economy's strong enough to stand on its own, the Fed starts to raise interest rates and pull back some of that money to ensure the economy doesn't overheat. Inflation is the Fed's heat gauge, and the gauge got VERY HOT.

Recently, that inflation gauge has been cooling, and economic activity has slowed. So everyone's waiting to see when the Fed will stop raising rates and how long it will take before it starts lowering them again.

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