Rates resilient once again, and look to end week up just slightly on improving economic news.

We should pay attention to the labor participation rate not the unemployment rate because labor participation drives the economy.

Rates are down today—regaining some of yesterday’s rise and ending the week near record lows—after this morning’s BLS report showed the economy added 80k non-farm payrolls in October. Plus September was revised from 103,000 to 158,000 new jobs created and August was revised from 57,000 to 104,000. This figure doesn’t count actual people, it counts [...]

BLS Jobs – Non-Farm jobs for October were +80,000. – Unemployment rate was 9.0%. Down from 9.1% – Average workweek was 34.3 hours – unchanged – Average Hourly Earnings was +0.2%. -Details: Private Jobs were +104,000. Public Jobs were -24,000. This will continue as state and local government continue to shed weight.

Friday is the big Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report for October. Markets expect 88k-100k new jobs created in October and unemployment to hold at 9.1%. Through September, the economy added 1.074m jobs or 119k/mo, but there are still 6.6m fewer jobs than the beginning of the recession in December 2007.

BLS Employment Situation Report shows +103,00 new nonfarm payrolls for September and moves August from flat to +57,000 and move July gains up as well. For the past 3 months there were +287,000 jobs. We need about +140,000 jobs/month to keep pace with population growth and maintain the same ratio of those employed/total population. Since [...]

Rates are down slightly on mortgage bond buying (FNMA 3.5% coupon +38 basis points) after another grim BLS report showing the economy added zero non-farm payrolls in August. Plus July was cut to show 85k new payrolls instead of the previously reported 117k, and June was cut from 46k to 20k. This figure doesn’t count [...]

BLJ Jobs in August were unchanged. June growth was revised down 20,000 and July growth was revised down 32,000. This report show 52,000 fewer people working than the last report. Private jobs were +17,000. Government Jobs were -17,000 for August and Health Care and Social Services jobs were +35,500.

This email subject is definitely quote of the day. My usage of “un-smart” is an attempt to match the utter lack of conviction. The senders should know better, they actually run a very good market intel service. [UPDATE 2pm PT: The Smart QOTD goes to @Dvolatility for this quote: Markets are just another division of [...]

As predicted, rates are up slightly on mortgage bond selling (FNMA 4% coupon -94 basis points) after after a better than expected BLS report showing the economy added 117,000 non-farm payrolls in July, plus June was revised to show 46,000 new payrolls instead of the previously reported 18,000. Non-farm payrolls doesn’t count actual people, it [...]