The US Non-Farm Payroll report showed that 257K jobs were added in January, higher than forecasts for a reading around 236K. Also, the print for December was revised up to 329K from 252K. US NFP(click to enlarge; source: forexfactory.com) This report pokes holes through the overcast from the ADP report, which disappointed on Thursday. The reading does show that January was not as strong as December, but the overall number can be considered strong above 250K. More importantly In the past 3 months data has been strong, supporting the FOMC's schedule to raise rates by mid-2015. This positive report was accompanied by a slight rise in unemployment rate from 5.6% to 5.7% .The good thing is, there was a 0.2% increase in the labor participation rate to 62.9%. Finally, average hourly earnings rose 0.5% in the month of January compared to December. The previous reading was -0.2% in December, and the forecast was for 0.3% in January. The 0.5% gain is the strongest since December 2006, when is also rose by 0.5%.