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

Good afternoon. Today is Thursday, July 3rd, and I'm your host, Kim Khan.

Wall Street closed early today ahead of the July 4th celebrations, but there was reason to stick around before hitting the holiday road.

The June jobs report came out a day early, with markets closed tomorrow,

and while not exactly fireworks, they were anything but a dud.

Once again, the U.S. economy showed signs of resilience,

just as everyone was ready to declare the good times gone.

Non-farm payrolls rose by 147,000, stronger than the 110,000 expected,

and the upwardly revised 144,000 jobs added

in May. The jobless rate unexpectedly ticked down to 4.1% from 4.2%, and average hourly

earnings rose 0.2% lower than the 0.3% consensus. People have been ringing the death knell of the

jobs market lately, but June was the 54th month of job growth in a row.

Strategist Charlie Bielo notes that's the second longest streak in history.

The unemployment rate has stayed between 4% and 4.2% for 14 straight months, but the labor force participation rate came in at the lowest level since December.

Economists sounded caution about a jump in education

jobs driving gains while private sector growth was weak, but a similar thing happened last June.

What the numbers did do is silence the whispers of a July rate cut. The odds of the Fed cutting

by a quarter point next month sank to around 7% from 24% yesterday. The odds of the FOMC staying

on hold in September rose to 28% from 6%.

Eric Merliss, co-head of global markets at Citizens, says the stability and labor conditions

should give the Fed leeway to maintain its wait-and-see stance until it has greater clarity

about how evolving policies may impact the economy. Stocks responded well to the jobs

...