Susan Schmidt

Good morning.

It is interesting.

She's been a steady hand at the helm of the ECB post-COVID and really guiding Europe through tough inflationary times, just as we've had in the U.S.

He is done as chair in May.

And so he will no longer be presiding over the board.

But remember that he can stay on as the Fed board until 2028.

And so the big question now will be, does he stay on and continue to hold that seat?

Or will he resign and give President Trump a chance to appoint someone else to fill that seat?

We've seen this pressure in software stocks already as AI has increasingly become a focus for investors.

But now you are really starting to see how AI can go in and replace entire functions of people in a firm.

That is what you get for this week because the government, once again on partial shutdown, doesn't have official data.

That's not going to come out until next week.

So investors will use that ADP data as their crutch trying to figure out what's going on with the job market this week.

22,000 jobs, half of what was expected.

The biggest loss there came, interestingly, in professional business services.

So again, showing hesitancy to hire in some of these roles because CEOs don't know what AI is going to be able to bring to their businesses.

Not that meager.

Remember, last month was negative.

So at least now we've got an add to the job number.

Well, they did, but it's still negative.