Slowing US economy and falling stocks may stay Fed's hand, TrimTabs says

America's economy continued to lose steam heading into the final strech of 2015 and should stocks also continue to fall then combined that could keep the Fed on the sidelines for the foreseeable future, TrimTabs Investment Research said on Wednesday.

On the basis of real-time data on income tax withholdings, the US added between 120,000 to 150,000 jobs in December - the least since February 2004 - TrimTabs said.

“The U.S. economy continued to lose momentum heading into the New Year,” said David Santschi, chief executive officer of TrimTabs.

“Employment growth last month was barely sufficient to keep pace with population growth.”

TrimTabs emphasised that, unlike the monthly tallies from the US Department of Labour, its estimates were not subject to revision long after their initial release.

The timing of year-end bonus payments made its analysis of withholdings in December more challenging than usual, it said in a statement.

Hence, this time around TrimTabs said it had opted to provide a range for the possible outcome of the next official monthly jobs report scheduled for release on 8 January, instead of providing a single figure.

“Job growth has been below 200,000 for four consecutive months,” said Santschi.

“If recent macroeconomic trends persist and stock prices keep heading lower, the Fed is unlikely to raise rates again anytime soon.”