This morning’s big news are poor employment headlines on either side of the border contributing to more rallying in the bond market.
Although the Canadian economy shed 6,600 jobs in September (+10,000 gain expected), the details are not so bad. 43,700 lost part time jobs were replaced by 37,100 full time jobs, which I think on balance should be viewed as a good thing. In other employment related news, our Unemployment Rate fell to 8.0% from 8.1%.
Other Canadian news includes a positive development in Housing Starts: September Housing starts of 186.4k were higher than the 179.0k that were expected, and the August number was also revised higher by 6,000 units.
Further south, 18,000 jobs were lost in the month of September (excluding the impact of the unwinding of census-related jobs). Beneath the headline, Private Payrolls were up by 64,000 (falling short of expected 75,000 gain) but it should be noted that the Private Payrolls gain for August was revised higher by 26k.
Other tidbits include an Unemployment Rate which fell to 9.6% from 9.7%, as well as flat levels of Hourly Earnings and Hours Worked.
Due to the Thanksgiving Day holiday here and the Columbus Day holiday in the US, both markets will have an early close.