US jobs soft, but no reversal

The Fed acknowledged that job growth "slowed" and the unemployment "held steady" since December. But they still stressed the cumulative improvement in labor market conditions, suggesting that may be enough - or nearly enough - to allow them to hike in December. 

Obviously the markets will be watching the October employment report extremely closely. A number of Fed officials have recently suggested that 100,000 may be the forward-looking equilibrium pace of employment growth. 

"Thus, a jobs report similar to the August and September140,000-range would still be a net improvement in the eyes of many Fed officials. Any further decline in the unemployment rate, as well as the U6 under-employment rate, would give further reason to think about starting to move away from zero in a gradual manner come December", says Bank of America.