Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action, news, and analysis.

Good afternoon. Today is Wednesday, February 11th, and I'm your host, Kim Khan. Our top story so far. So much for all the pessimism heading into the delayed jobs report.

Non-farm payrolls rose by 130,000 in January,

beating the 70,000 consensus, and well above December's 48,000. The unemployment rate dipped

to 4.3% from 4.4% versus expectations for 4.4%. The labor force participation rate edged up to

62.5% from 62.4 in December. The BLS also revised down its estimate of

2025 job growth to 181,000 from 584, bringing the monthly average of 2025 to about 15,000.

Another sign the labor market has been running on low hiring. Frea Beamish, chief economist at

T.S. Lombard, wrote that with today's upside surprise,

the three-month trend now hints at recovery that may be starting as businesses adjusts to uncertainty

and margins hold up. Companies weathered last year's tariff uncertainty in the best possible way for

productivity growth, refraining from passing on tariff cost increases, thereby shielding

real demand and refraining from hiring,

she said. If the labor market really has turned, then the productivity bulls will have a lot to answer.

The strong data echoed through stocks, bonds and rate expectations.

Stocks popped at the open, led by the NASDAQ. Treasury yields rose across the curve,

with a two-year-round 3.5%, and the 10-year near 4.2%.

But Bitcoin didn't join the risk-on move, staying in the red below 70K.

And on the Fed front, the quarter-point rate cut that had been fully priced in for June was pushed out to July,

while the odds of a third rate cut fell from around 40% to about 5%.

Headlining company news, call it a reconciliation

between mac and cheese and ketchup. Kraft Hines has paused work on its separation plan as it

...