Market Analysis

Today's market update covers both Thursday 11/5 and Friday 11/6. 

Yesterday the bond market improved in the afternoon following the 3rd Qtr Productivity and Unit Labor Cost Report.  Productivity soared to a 9.5% increase and unit labor costs fell by 5.2%.  Analysts view these #s as showing that in the short-to-medium term labor cost inflation is not an issue.  Earlier in the day yesterday, the Initial Jobless Claims for the week ended 10/31 were released. Those showed initial claims dropped by 18,000 which was a bigger drop than the 6,000 expected.

This morning, the bond market initially improved and then worsened and then improved in volatility surrounding the October Non-Farm Payroll report.  190,000 jobs were lost and the unemployment rate increased to 10.2%.  The 190,000 # was not too far from expectations in the 175,000 range.  The 10.2% unemployment rate was higher than expected. However, the September Non-Farm job losses originally reported at 263,000 were revised down to 219,000 and August Non-Farm job losses were revised down to 154,000 from 201,000.