New numbers in on Friday show US job growth steadied last month, but they also show unemployment rose to 4.1%. Overall, it wasn’t the worst day of economic news for the Trump administration in what’s otherwise been three solid weeks of grim data. Inflation has proven sticky and stagflation is now a threat. As consumers start to pull back on spending, businesses may start to rethink hiring plans. More Americans are permanently out of work and fewer workers are on federal government payrolls. There also was a jump in those working part-time for economic reasons—and the number of Americans holding multiple jobs climbed to a record of nearly 8.9 million.

Nevertheless, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, nonfarm payrolls did increase by 151,000 in February. The advance in hiring was led by health care, transportation and financial activities.

This is the first jobs report fully within Trump’s second term. It’s also the first to reflect the start of his effort to slash the US government, an initiative that’s the subject of widespread litigation for being potentially illegal or unconstitutional. It’s already contributed to the most job-cut announcements since early in the pandemic. Some economists say the US could lose over half a million jobs by the end of the year because of Trump’s firings and their spillover effects on the broader economy. Friday’s jobs numbers—since they don’t include Trump’s recent mass dismissals and those yet to come—could be the calm before the storm.

But rather than start your weekend on a sour note, here’s some calming news from none other than Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. While acknowledging with his usual understatement that there’s increased uncertainty in the US economic outlook, Powell said the economy “continues to be in a good place.” —David E. Rovella

From today's Supply Lines newsletter: Trump’s threats, reversals and retreats on tariffs are worrying US farmers. But Europe’s agriculture industry is also very concerned. Learn more about which sectors are at risk in today's edition of Supply Lines, a newsletter exclusively for Bloomberg.com subscribers.

What You Need to Know Today

Wall Street traders this week were hit by the biggest cross-asset losses since the Fed’s monetary-tightening campaign peaked in 2023. While we all know the reasons  (see above), there’s cause to worry should the Washington-induced stock dive continue. Known as the “wealth effect,” people tend to spend when assets are buoyant and do the opposite when they’re not. While the scale of recent losses isn’t cause for panic just yet, the speed of the plunge is a reminder that markets themselves have the power to cause economic trouble should they continue to crater. “The wealth effect is a double-edged sword,” said Doug Ramsey, chief investment officer at Leuthold Group. “We doubt this economic expansion can survive a stock market correction of more than 12-15%.”

As Russia continues attacking inside Ukraine, reportedly killing multiple civilians overnight, Trump said Friday he was considering new sanctions on Moscow—but then said he understands why Vladimir Putin would continue bombing Ukrainian towns and cities. Trump, 78, has been trying to push Ukraine into a ceasefire deal, and Putin is now making noises about a ceasefire, too, though in both cases with conditions likely to include the Kremlin retaining control of Ukraine lands. 

A woman walks past a damaged building in Bilytske, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, on March 3. Photographer: Tetiana Dzhafarova/AFP/Getty Images

Trump’s comments came as America continues to undercut Ukraine’s defense capabilities. Having stopped military assistance and ended some intelligence access, Trump has reportedly cut off satellite access to Kyiv’s forces, too. And despite talk of new sanctions, his aides have been working on a plan to possibly lift sanctions against Russia—including the oil price cap—if there’s progress in ceasefire talks. In less than two months, the US has gone from Ukraine’s staunchest ally to something else entirely. And on Friday, news came that one of Ukraine’s few remaining bargaining chips may be slipping away.

A federal judge in Washington said he’ll likely order Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency to preserve records of its activities amid allegations staff are using an encrypted messaging platform to communicate. At a hearing Friday, US District Judge Christopher Cooper told a Trump administration lawyer that Musk should assume a forthcoming preservation order would immediately apply to his work and that of his aides and to “advise your clients of that as soon as possible.” Cooper is presiding over a lawsuit demanding Musk’s group comply with records requests by a watchdog group claiming the billionaire and his team are working “in the shadows” to dismantle the federal bureaucracy. Meanwhile, as the lawsuits and court orders against the administration pile up, allegations that Trump is ignoring the courts are growing, and with them fear he will trigger a constitutional crisis.

The CEOs of the three largest American steelmakers are urging Trump to resist giving any tariff exemptions on imports of the alloy. Nine US steel industry executives sent a letter to Trump Friday, just days before he has threatened to implement a 25% tariff on all steel imports. The letter said prior exemptions diminished the impact of similar duties imposed during his first administration. The CEOs, which include Nucor’s Leon Topalian, United States Steel’s David Burritt and Cleveland-Cliffs’s Lourenco Goncalves, argued avoiding exemptions was a matter of national security.

The Trump administration has terminated two decades-old, independent food safety advisory committees to the US Department of Agriculture. The National Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Criteria for Foods and National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection, both made up of experts from academia, industry and advocacy groups, have been disbanded. “The termination of these two important advisory committees is very alarming and should serve as a warning to consumers that food safety will not be a priority at USDA in the foreseeable future,” said Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports.

What You’ll Need to Know Tomorrow

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