This morning, the Labor Department released its December payroll report that showed just 74,000 jobs were added last month. This marks the smallest increase since January 2011 and is significantly below the consensus estimates. The Labor Department noted that cold weather may have played a factor as steep declines were seen in both construction and transportation. Despite the lower number of jobs added, the unemployment rate fell to 6.7%. This number can be misleading as the drop was mostly the result of people leaving the labor force. On the news, the US markets were trading modestly higher.

For MarketNewsVideo.com, I'm Sayoko Murase.