The U.S. labor market likely showed modest improvement in December, providing some encouragement for the year ahead but nothing to get too excited about.Nonfarm payrolls likely rose by 73,000 last month while the unemployment rate edged lower to 4.5%, according to the Dow Jones consensus. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the report Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET.If those numbers are near accurate, it would represent a slight step up from the 55,000 average monthly gain during the prior 11 months of 2025 ...