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

Good afternoon, today is Tuesday, December 16th, and I'm your host, Kim Khan.

Our top story so far, a host of delayed economic data hit this morning as the government catches up from its shutdown.

But while the numbers

filled in some gaps, the overall macro picture didn't get much clearer. The October-November

jobs numbers were the big event. Non-farm payrolls rose by 64,000 in November, topping the 40K

consensus, and rebounding from the 105,000 decline in October, which was also an initial estimate today. November payroll showed a rebound

from October's expected slump, which reflected the loss of 162,000 federal government jobs,

links to its deferred resignation program, and a deceleration from September's number. Federal

government employment is dropped by 271,000 since reaching a peak in January.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.6% in November, higher than the 4.5 consensus, and accelerating

for 4.4% in September.

That's the highest level since September 2021, and the fourth straight month the jobless rate has

risen.

It hasn't done that in 16 years. Economist Justin Wolfer says the public

sector is not the whole story. Noting private sector hiring remains weak and an average of 45,000 a month

and may have stalled totally. While economists Ernie Tedeshi says overall employment and participation rates

continue to look good, but the flows, jolts and the change in the unemployment rate,

look much weaker, and certain subpopulations, for example 16 to 24-year-olds, no longer

look strong. Retail sales for October also dropped, basically flat with September,

core retail sales gained 0.4%, and were up 0.5% ex-gas and autos.

Among active stocks, Pfizer is lower after it revised its

...