(Reuters) - Traders on Friday bet the Federal Reserve will wait until June to start cutting interest rates after a government report showed stronger than expected jobs growth last month, even as they bet that the first rate cut will be a bigger-than-usual half-point reduction. 

Bets in short-term interest-rate futures had surged overnight on an earlier start to policy easing, after China announced its own tariffs to counter those put on by the United States earlier this week. The contracts continue to price a full percentage point of Fed rate cuts by year end.