Investors are on red alert as signs of an economic slowdown loom: MSNBC financial analyst

U.S. managing editor for the Financial Times Gillian Tett told MSNBC Friday that the lower than expected jobs report coupled with the dramatic drop in household net worth may signal a slowdown -- and investors are very nervous.

"We already knew the stock market crash at the end of last year, if not a crash then a sharp decline, had caused damage in terms of household net worth," Tett said. "The big question right now is looking forward to the rest of 2019 and saying 'what does this job number mean for where the economy is going.'"

"On one level the data was badly distorted by the government shutdown," she said, adding that "figures are sort of okay" depending on how the numbers are analyzed. "But the fact that waves are ticking up so sharply is going to put a lot of pressure on the Federal Reserve to think about whether it could afford to sit on its hands.

"At the same time a lot of economists, a lot of investors are on red alert, or what I call 'canary alert,' looking for canaries in the coal mine, suggesting that the economy is going to slow down," Tett went on. "The today's job numbers just may be nota debt canary, but certainly a canary that is ailing a little bit."

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