**Employment Data Bombs, So Why Is the Market Still Rising?**

Last night, the US ADP employment report was a shocker: -32,000! Keep in mind, the expectation was for a positive increase of 10,000. This is the worst since March 2023. Logically, with numbers like this, the market should be tanking, right? But US stocks kept climbing, gold held steady, and the dollar actually weakened.

To put it bluntly—no one was surprised.

Digging deeper, it’s even scarier: small businesses slashed 120,000 jobs in one go, and hiring in manufacturing and construction has all but stopped. So why isn’t capital panicking? Because the market’s focus has already shifted from “Is inflation still high?” to “Will the economy have a hard landing?” The weaker the economy looks, the greater the pressure on the Fed to cut rates. Right now, the futures market is pricing in a 90% chance of a rate cut in December, and smart money has been positioning early.

**The Real Bombshell: Is the Fed Getting a New Boss?**

ADP is just the appetizer—the main course is this:

Trump has recently hinted that White House economic advisor Hassett may replace Powell as Fed Chair. This guy is a hardcore Trump loyalist and has previously voiced support for rate cuts and tariff policies. If he does take the helm, the Fed’s “independence” could take a serious hit, and the scale of monetary easing might be much greater than the market currently expects.

Plus, Trump is already stacking the Fed Board with his people, like Milan and others. Once the personnel shake-up is complete, the 2026 rate decisions could shift straight to “growth first,” and they might even be bold enough to challenge the 2% inflation target.

**My Take?**

Don’t be scared by the surface-level “bad economic data.” The rules of the game are being rewritten, and political maneuvering could soon matter more than the economic numbers themselves.