the administration has an argument we have had strong job growth this year. however, it s growth on a trend they inherited and not accelerated or done better and now it s starting to slow down a bit and i m happy to see the job gains we have had but they re on a trend already in play. we have jared bernstein giving us a lay of the land. thank you so much. thank you. i want to turn to wall street. so far the markets are relying and rallying on the final day of the year and right now the dow up more than 200 points and it s been up all day. the s&p and the nasdaq are also higher right now but the markets are still poised for their worst december performance and that s since 1931 during the great depression. before trading started today the dow and the s&p were down almost 10% this month alone and the nasdaq was down more than 10% and i want to bring in cnbc s leslie pickard to join us. what s moving the markets today?
hey, morgan. we have seen in the last 30 minutes or so real momentum start to pick up across the three major indexes. positive news on the trade front like with this weekend trump tweeting a quote very good call with president xi of china creating some optimism and then i think traders are starting to be optimistic about the shutdown in washington. with news on that front. but as you mentioned, this december is the worst we have seen in a very long time, since the great depression. the year is the worst we have seen. it s on track to be the worst we have seen since the financial crisis of 2008 with losses in all three major indexes of about 9% this year. so, it s not a good looking 2018. i think a lot of investors are looking forward to 2019 at this point. leslie, i have to say when i was home for the holidays everyone was talking about their 401(k)s. there was all this angst, all this anxiety.
and for those people watching them tumble, how about a new year s rally? it s very scary, especially as you re watching the numbers on a weekly basis and toward the end of the year when usually we expect to see the markets move higher, now, next year, there are mixed views on what could come. people are looking at the potential for aear after that. economists chorus surrounding that view has become a little bit louder. that said, i think this is gotten the attention of president trump, as well, a lot of what happens with the markets next year depends on what happens at the central bank, at the federal reserve. how quickly the interest rates rise because the markets tend to react to the liquidity in the market directly what the interest rates and the tightening regime is with the central bank. here s to hoping that january is better than december. leslie, thank you. thank you. next, talk about the