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Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly fell in January to the lowest level in 21 months, while payroll growth was depressed by winter storms.
Unemployment declined to 9 percent from December’s 9.4 percent, the Labor Department said today in Washington.
Employers added 36,000 workers, short of the 146,000 median gain projected by economists in a Bloomberg News survey.
The dollar gained and Treasuries slid as the drop in unemployment pointed to a labor market that’s on the mend following the loss of almost 9 million jobs during the recession. The improvement may not be enough to satisfy Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who’s likely to keep interest rates near zero for another year, said Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co.
“We’ve got at least 12 months ahead of us before the Fed feels comfortable in terms of a sustained period of job creation,” Gross, who manages the world’s biggest bond fund, said in a radio interview on “Bloomberg Surveillance” with Tom Keene. “I would suspect that the Fed would believe that a more normal unemployment rate would certainly be something less than
8 percent.”
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 3.64 percent at 4:20 p.m. in New York from 3.55 percent late yesterday. The dollar strengthened to $1.3587 per euro from $1.3634. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.3 percent to
1,310.87 at the 4 p.m. close.
Construction, Transportation
Payrolls in construction and transportation, industries most affected by bad weather, declined in January, while factory employment rose the most since August 1998.
“Snow suppressed payrolls, but look past it and the labor market is clearly improving,” said Ward McCarthy, chief financial economist at Jefferies & Co. in New York.
Companies including Emerson Electric Co. are hiring as consumer spending, business investment and exports climb, signaling the expansion is gaining momentum.
Emerson, the maker of data-center equipment and thermostats, plans to boost global employment this year by about 7,000 workers to meet rising sales.
“We are planning a very strong 2011,” Chief Executive Officer David Farr said on a Feb. 1 conference call with investors. “There’s definitely a point in time that we’re going to have to start bringing people in.”
Private Hiring
Private hiring, which excludes government agencies, rose 50,000 in January. Factory payrolls increased by 49,000, exceeding the survey forecast of a 10,000 gain.
President Barack Obama is stressing job-creating public investments in education, technology and infrastructure as he prepares to send a budget to Congress. He’s being hemmed by a budget deficit that’s forecast to widen to a record $1.5 trillion.
“We’ve got to do more to keep getting the unemployment rate down and to keep getting people back to work,” White House chief economist Austan Goolsbee said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.
The jobless rate, which was projected to rise to 9.5 percent, declined as the number of unemployed fell by 590,000.
Those people who said they were not in the labor force increased by 162,000 in January, according to the Labor Department’s survey of households. The drop from November’s 9.8 percent marked the biggest two-month decline since 1958.
December’s gain in payrolls was revised to 121,000 from a 103,000 increase reported earlier, while November’s rise was revised to 93,000 from 71,000.
Hourly Earnings
Average hourly earnings increased to $22.86 from $22.78 in the prior month. The average work week for all workers slipped to 34.2 hours from 34.3 hours.
= SGD 4k!
Employment at service providers rose 18,000. Construction payrolls dropped 32,000 and transportation and warehousing jobs fell by 38,000. Retailers added 27,500 jobs.
A storm that spread from the Midwest and the South to New England during the week covered by the Labor Department’s employer survey likely depressed January numbers as businesses temporarily closed.
Bad weather prevented 886,000 Americans from going to work in the January survey week, the Labor Department’s survey of households showed. That compares with an average of 282,000 over the previous five Januarys. Economists at Morgan Stanley said the storms may have subtracted about 150,000 workers from the payrolls count, they said in a note to clients.
Government Payrolls
Government payrolls decreased by 14,000. State and local governments struggling to close budget deficits reduced employment by 12,000, while the federal government trimmed 2,000 workers.
The so-called underemployment rate -- which includes part- time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking -- decreased to 16.1 percent from 16.7 percent. The number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or more decreased as a percentage of all jobless, to 43.8 percent from 44.3 percent.
Revised figures showed the economy lost 8.75 million jobs as a result of the recession. For all of 2010, the U.S. added about 909,000 jobs. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg in January projected unemployment will average more than 9 percent this year.
“Until we see a sustained period of stronger job creation, we cannot consider the recovery to be truly established,” Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington. “It will be several years before the unemployment rate has returned to a more normal level.”
Crude fell after a government report showed that the U.S. added fewer jobs in January than economists forecast, bolstering concern that fuel demand will slip in the world’s biggest oil-consuming country.
Futures dropped 1.7 percent after the Labor Department said employers increased payrolls by 36,000 last month. The number of workers was projected to climb by 146,000, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. Gasoline stockpiles rose to the highest level in almost 18 years as demand decreased, according to an Energy Department report on Feb. 2.
“The fuel markets are weighing on crude,” said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective in New York.
“Today’s jobless numbers showed many fewer people got jobs than expected and that many others have simply given up looking for work, which raises concerns about U.S. consumer demand. We already are looking at weak demand and very high stockpiles.”
Crude oil for March delivery declined $1.51 to settle at
$89.03 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are down 0.3 percent this week and have increased 22 percent over the past year.
Gasoline futures for March delivery tumbled 6.81 cents, or
2.7 percent, to end the session at $2.4353 a gallon in New York.
The unemployment rate dropped to 9 percent in January from
9.4 percent the previous month. The so-called underemployment rate, which includes part-time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking, decreased to 16.1 percent from 16.7 percent.
‘Poor Number’
“Once you get past the initial headline, the jobs report isn’t very good,” said Kyle Cooper, director of research for IAF Advisors in Houston. “A 9 percent unemployment rate is definitely better than 10 percent, but historically it’s a poor number. This shows that things still aren’t that great.”
The U.S. needs to see faster job growth for a sufficient period of time before policy makers can be assured the economic recovery has taken hold, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S.
Bernanke said yesterday in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington.
Supplies of gasoline rose 6.15 million barrels to 236.2 million last week, the highest level since March 1993, the Energy Department report showed. It was the biggest gain since January 2009. Inventories have climbed in 10 of the past 11 weeks.
Total fuel demand decreased 0.3 percent to 18.8 million barrels a day last week, the lowest level since November, the department said. Gasoline consumption fell 1 percent to 8.55 million barrels a day, the lowest amount since the week ended Feb. 12, 2010.
Egyptian Protest
Futures gained as much as 1.3 percent earlier today as Egyptians poured out of Friday prayer services and into Cairo’s Tahrir Square in the tens of thousands as yesterday’s fighting gave way to a peaceful mass protest.
Other Arab countries gripped by instability include Yemen, where police used tear gas against protesters yesterday, and Jordan, which sacked its government this week. Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said yesterday that a 19-year-old state of emergency will be lifted “in the very near future.”
The protests began in Tunisia, where President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced from office last month.
About 2.5 percent of global oil output moves through Egypt via the Suez Canal and the Suez-Mediterranean Pipeline, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The waterway is open and operating normally today, Ahmed El Manakhly, head of traffic for the Suez Canal Authority, said by phone.
Egypt’s Revenue
“A significant part of Egypt’s revenue comes from the Suez Canal and tourism,” said Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank in Washington. “Since tourism will be hurt for a while because of the unrest, whoever is in control will definitely want to keep both the Suez Canal and the SuMed pipeline running smoothly.”
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries should only meet if the Suez Canal closes, Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez told reporters today in Caracas. Oil is rising to a “fair price,” he said. OPEC ministers are next scheduled to gather in June at the group’s Vienna headquarters.
Brent crude for March settlement fell $1.93, or 1.9 percent, to end the session at $99.83 a barrel on the London- based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract touched $103.37 yesterday, the highest intraday level since Sept. 26, 2008.
Oil volume on the Nymex was 699,437 contracts as of 3:27 p.m. in electronic trading in New York. Volume totaled 682,075 contracts yesterday, 3.4 percent lower than the average of the past three months. Open interest was 1.56 million contracts, the highest level since Sept. 12, 2007.
The dollar advanced for a third day against the euro and yen in the longest stretch of gains in four weeks after the U.S. jobless rate fell to the lowest level since April 2009 even as winter storms limited gains in payrolls.
Canada’s currency touched a two-year high versus the dollar as the nation’s employment rose more than four times economists’
forecasts. Egypt’s pound held near a six-year low as protesters proclaimed the “day of departure” for President Hosni Mubarak.
The greenback climbed against most its major counterparts as benchmark Treasury yields rose on the U.S. jobs data, making dollar-denominated assets more attractive.
“As the focus shifted to the unemployment rate instead of the headline nonfarm payrolls, we saw euro-dollar breaking lower,” said Mary Nicola, a currency strategist at BNP Paribas SA in New York. “Risk appetite today will be hard to determine as events in Egypt unfold.”
The dollar appreciated 0.4 percent to $1.3585 per euro at
4:14 p.m. in New York, from $1.3634 yesterday, after touching $1.3544, the strongest level since Jan. 24. The dollar climbed
0.7 percent to 82.19 yen, from 81.63. The euro gained 0.3 percent to 111.66 yen, from 111.29.
U.S. unemployment unexpectedly dropped to 9 percent last month from 9.4 percent in December, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Employers added 36,000 workers, the smallest gain in four months, after a 121,000 rise that was larger than initially reported.
Drop in Treasuries
Treasuries fell, pushing 10-year note yields to 3.66 percent, the highest level since May 4. Thirty-year bond yields touched 4.74 percent, the highest since April 15.
The Swiss franc fell against all its major counterparts after the U.S. and Canadian employment reports, dropping as much as 1.4 percent against the dollar to 95.94 centimes.
The currency, perceived as a haven, declined 0.7 percent to
1.2992 against the euro after a report showed yesterday that Europe’s services and manufacturing industries expanded at the fastest pace in nine months in January.
Egypt’s stock market and banking system remained closed amid anti-government protests, shielding the Egyptian pound, which touched 5.8585 against the dollar on Jan. 31, the weakest since January 2005.
The Suez Canal, which carries about 8 percent of global maritime trade, was operating normally today, Egyptian authorities said. Israel’s shekel dropped 0.2 percent to 3.7160.
The euro was poised for a weekly decrease of 0.2 percent versus the dollar as European Union leaders met in Brussels to try to narrow differences on ending the region’s debt crisis.
Debt Safety Net
Germany and France are at odds over possible bond buybacks and a “competitiveness pact,” which is German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s condition for strengthening the safety net for debt-strapped countries.
The 17-nation currency may fall 2.3 percent to $1.3246 if it weakens below $1.3498, said George Davis, chief technical analyst for fixed income and currency strategy at Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto, in a phone interview.
“That is the pivot point for bullish and bearish sentiment,” Davis said. “If that level breaks on the downside, some of the people that had positioned in medium- to long-term positions in the euro are going to start to cash in and exit.”
Canada’s currency appreciated 0.3 percent to 98.79 cents per U.S. dollar on the nation’s job gains after touching 98.32 cents, the strongest level since May 2008. The loonie advanced
1.2 percent to 83.33 yen.
Canadian Jobs
Statistics Canada reported that employment rose by 69,200, compared with the median forecast of 15,000 in a Bloomberg News survey of 26 economists. The jobless rate rose to 7.8 percent from 7.6 percent. Full-time employment rose by 31,100 in January, and part-time jobs increased by 38,000.
“It’s a blowout number,” said C.J. Gavsie, managing director for foreign-exchange trading at Bank of Montreal’s BMO Capital Markets in Toronto. “What we need to see is this part- time significant increase move more into the full-time area.”
The Canadian employment report restores the nation’s status as having regained all the jobs lost in the recession. A Jan. 28 revision based on updated census data reduced Statistics Canada’s estimate of total employment.
The euro fell 1.3 percent yesterday, the most since November, as European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said inflation has been prompted “mainly” by rising energy and commodity costs, dimming prospects for a boost in the target lending rate from a record low 1 percent.
Bernanke on Economy
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday in a speech in Washington that the U.S. needs to see faster job growth for a sufficient time before policy makers can be assured the economic recovery has taken hold.
Bad weather prevented 886,000 Americans from going to work in the January survey week, the Labor Department’s survey of households showed today. That compares with an average of 282,000 over the previous five Januarys.
Economists at Morgan Stanley said before the report a figure around 475,000 would be consistent with about a 50,000 reduction in overall payrolls.
Unemployment declined to 9 percent from December’s 9.4 percent, the Labor Department said today in Washington.
Employers added 36,000 workers, short of the 146,000 median gain projected by economists in a Bloomberg News survey.
The dollar gained and Treasuries slid as the drop in unemployment pointed to a labor market that’s on the mend following the loss of almost 9 million jobs during the recession. The improvement may not be enough to satisfy Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who’s likely to keep interest rates near zero for another year, said Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co.
“We’ve got at least 12 months ahead of us before the Fed feels comfortable in terms of a sustained period of job creation,” Gross, who manages the world’s biggest bond fund, said in a radio interview on “Bloomberg Surveillance” with Tom Keene. “I would suspect that the Fed would believe that a more normal unemployment rate would certainly be something less than
8 percent.”
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 3.64 percent at 4:20 p.m. in New York from 3.55 percent late yesterday. The dollar strengthened to $1.3587 per euro from $1.3634. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.3 percent to
1,310.87 at the 4 p.m. close.
Construction, Transportation
Payrolls in construction and transportation, industries most affected by bad weather, declined in January, while factory employment rose the most since August 1998.
“Snow suppressed payrolls, but look past it and the labor market is clearly improving,” said Ward McCarthy, chief financial economist at Jefferies & Co. in New York.
Companies including Emerson Electric Co. are hiring as consumer spending, business investment and exports climb, signaling the expansion is gaining momentum.
Emerson, the maker of data-center equipment and thermostats, plans to boost global employment this year by about 7,000 workers to meet rising sales.
“We are planning a very strong 2011,” Chief Executive Officer David Farr said on a Feb. 1 conference call with investors. “There’s definitely a point in time that we’re going to have to start bringing people in.”
Private Hiring
Private hiring, which excludes government agencies, rose 50,000 in January. Factory payrolls increased by 49,000, exceeding the survey forecast of a 10,000 gain.
President Barack Obama is stressing job-creating public investments in education, technology and infrastructure as he prepares to send a budget to Congress. He’s being hemmed by a budget deficit that’s forecast to widen to a record $1.5 trillion.
“We’ve got to do more to keep getting the unemployment rate down and to keep getting people back to work,” White House chief economist Austan Goolsbee said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.
The jobless rate, which was projected to rise to 9.5 percent, declined as the number of unemployed fell by 590,000.
Those people who said they were not in the labor force increased by 162,000 in January, according to the Labor Department’s survey of households. The drop from November’s 9.8 percent marked the biggest two-month decline since 1958.
December’s gain in payrolls was revised to 121,000 from a 103,000 increase reported earlier, while November’s rise was revised to 93,000 from 71,000.
Hourly Earnings
Average hourly earnings increased to $22.86 from $22.78 in the prior month. The average work week for all workers slipped to 34.2 hours from 34.3 hours.
= SGD 4k!
Employment at service providers rose 18,000. Construction payrolls dropped 32,000 and transportation and warehousing jobs fell by 38,000. Retailers added 27,500 jobs.
A storm that spread from the Midwest and the South to New England during the week covered by the Labor Department’s employer survey likely depressed January numbers as businesses temporarily closed.
Bad weather prevented 886,000 Americans from going to work in the January survey week, the Labor Department’s survey of households showed. That compares with an average of 282,000 over the previous five Januarys. Economists at Morgan Stanley said the storms may have subtracted about 150,000 workers from the payrolls count, they said in a note to clients.
Government Payrolls
Government payrolls decreased by 14,000. State and local governments struggling to close budget deficits reduced employment by 12,000, while the federal government trimmed 2,000 workers.
The so-called underemployment rate -- which includes part- time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking -- decreased to 16.1 percent from 16.7 percent. The number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or more decreased as a percentage of all jobless, to 43.8 percent from 44.3 percent.
Revised figures showed the economy lost 8.75 million jobs as a result of the recession. For all of 2010, the U.S. added about 909,000 jobs. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg in January projected unemployment will average more than 9 percent this year.
“Until we see a sustained period of stronger job creation, we cannot consider the recovery to be truly established,” Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington. “It will be several years before the unemployment rate has returned to a more normal level.”
Crude fell after a government report showed that the U.S. added fewer jobs in January than economists forecast, bolstering concern that fuel demand will slip in the world’s biggest oil-consuming country.
Futures dropped 1.7 percent after the Labor Department said employers increased payrolls by 36,000 last month. The number of workers was projected to climb by 146,000, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. Gasoline stockpiles rose to the highest level in almost 18 years as demand decreased, according to an Energy Department report on Feb. 2.
“The fuel markets are weighing on crude,” said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures Perspective in New York.
“Today’s jobless numbers showed many fewer people got jobs than expected and that many others have simply given up looking for work, which raises concerns about U.S. consumer demand. We already are looking at weak demand and very high stockpiles.”
Crude oil for March delivery declined $1.51 to settle at
$89.03 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are down 0.3 percent this week and have increased 22 percent over the past year.
Gasoline futures for March delivery tumbled 6.81 cents, or
2.7 percent, to end the session at $2.4353 a gallon in New York.
The unemployment rate dropped to 9 percent in January from
9.4 percent the previous month. The so-called underemployment rate, which includes part-time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking, decreased to 16.1 percent from 16.7 percent.
‘Poor Number’
“Once you get past the initial headline, the jobs report isn’t very good,” said Kyle Cooper, director of research for IAF Advisors in Houston. “A 9 percent unemployment rate is definitely better than 10 percent, but historically it’s a poor number. This shows that things still aren’t that great.”
The U.S. needs to see faster job growth for a sufficient period of time before policy makers can be assured the economic recovery has taken hold, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S.
Bernanke said yesterday in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington.
Supplies of gasoline rose 6.15 million barrels to 236.2 million last week, the highest level since March 1993, the Energy Department report showed. It was the biggest gain since January 2009. Inventories have climbed in 10 of the past 11 weeks.
Total fuel demand decreased 0.3 percent to 18.8 million barrels a day last week, the lowest level since November, the department said. Gasoline consumption fell 1 percent to 8.55 million barrels a day, the lowest amount since the week ended Feb. 12, 2010.
Egyptian Protest
Futures gained as much as 1.3 percent earlier today as Egyptians poured out of Friday prayer services and into Cairo’s Tahrir Square in the tens of thousands as yesterday’s fighting gave way to a peaceful mass protest.
Other Arab countries gripped by instability include Yemen, where police used tear gas against protesters yesterday, and Jordan, which sacked its government this week. Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said yesterday that a 19-year-old state of emergency will be lifted “in the very near future.”
The protests began in Tunisia, where President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced from office last month.
About 2.5 percent of global oil output moves through Egypt via the Suez Canal and the Suez-Mediterranean Pipeline, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The waterway is open and operating normally today, Ahmed El Manakhly, head of traffic for the Suez Canal Authority, said by phone.
Egypt’s Revenue
“A significant part of Egypt’s revenue comes from the Suez Canal and tourism,” said Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank in Washington. “Since tourism will be hurt for a while because of the unrest, whoever is in control will definitely want to keep both the Suez Canal and the SuMed pipeline running smoothly.”
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries should only meet if the Suez Canal closes, Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez told reporters today in Caracas. Oil is rising to a “fair price,” he said. OPEC ministers are next scheduled to gather in June at the group’s Vienna headquarters.
Brent crude for March settlement fell $1.93, or 1.9 percent, to end the session at $99.83 a barrel on the London- based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract touched $103.37 yesterday, the highest intraday level since Sept. 26, 2008.
Oil volume on the Nymex was 699,437 contracts as of 3:27 p.m. in electronic trading in New York. Volume totaled 682,075 contracts yesterday, 3.4 percent lower than the average of the past three months. Open interest was 1.56 million contracts, the highest level since Sept. 12, 2007.
The dollar advanced for a third day against the euro and yen in the longest stretch of gains in four weeks after the U.S. jobless rate fell to the lowest level since April 2009 even as winter storms limited gains in payrolls.
Canada’s currency touched a two-year high versus the dollar as the nation’s employment rose more than four times economists’
forecasts. Egypt’s pound held near a six-year low as protesters proclaimed the “day of departure” for President Hosni Mubarak.
The greenback climbed against most its major counterparts as benchmark Treasury yields rose on the U.S. jobs data, making dollar-denominated assets more attractive.
“As the focus shifted to the unemployment rate instead of the headline nonfarm payrolls, we saw euro-dollar breaking lower,” said Mary Nicola, a currency strategist at BNP Paribas SA in New York. “Risk appetite today will be hard to determine as events in Egypt unfold.”
The dollar appreciated 0.4 percent to $1.3585 per euro at
4:14 p.m. in New York, from $1.3634 yesterday, after touching $1.3544, the strongest level since Jan. 24. The dollar climbed
0.7 percent to 82.19 yen, from 81.63. The euro gained 0.3 percent to 111.66 yen, from 111.29.
U.S. unemployment unexpectedly dropped to 9 percent last month from 9.4 percent in December, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Employers added 36,000 workers, the smallest gain in four months, after a 121,000 rise that was larger than initially reported.
Drop in Treasuries
Treasuries fell, pushing 10-year note yields to 3.66 percent, the highest level since May 4. Thirty-year bond yields touched 4.74 percent, the highest since April 15.
The Swiss franc fell against all its major counterparts after the U.S. and Canadian employment reports, dropping as much as 1.4 percent against the dollar to 95.94 centimes.
The currency, perceived as a haven, declined 0.7 percent to
1.2992 against the euro after a report showed yesterday that Europe’s services and manufacturing industries expanded at the fastest pace in nine months in January.
Egypt’s stock market and banking system remained closed amid anti-government protests, shielding the Egyptian pound, which touched 5.8585 against the dollar on Jan. 31, the weakest since January 2005.
The Suez Canal, which carries about 8 percent of global maritime trade, was operating normally today, Egyptian authorities said. Israel’s shekel dropped 0.2 percent to 3.7160.
The euro was poised for a weekly decrease of 0.2 percent versus the dollar as European Union leaders met in Brussels to try to narrow differences on ending the region’s debt crisis.
Debt Safety Net
Germany and France are at odds over possible bond buybacks and a “competitiveness pact,” which is German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s condition for strengthening the safety net for debt-strapped countries.
The 17-nation currency may fall 2.3 percent to $1.3246 if it weakens below $1.3498, said George Davis, chief technical analyst for fixed income and currency strategy at Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto, in a phone interview.
“That is the pivot point for bullish and bearish sentiment,” Davis said. “If that level breaks on the downside, some of the people that had positioned in medium- to long-term positions in the euro are going to start to cash in and exit.”
Canada’s currency appreciated 0.3 percent to 98.79 cents per U.S. dollar on the nation’s job gains after touching 98.32 cents, the strongest level since May 2008. The loonie advanced
1.2 percent to 83.33 yen.
Canadian Jobs
Statistics Canada reported that employment rose by 69,200, compared with the median forecast of 15,000 in a Bloomberg News survey of 26 economists. The jobless rate rose to 7.8 percent from 7.6 percent. Full-time employment rose by 31,100 in January, and part-time jobs increased by 38,000.
“It’s a blowout number,” said C.J. Gavsie, managing director for foreign-exchange trading at Bank of Montreal’s BMO Capital Markets in Toronto. “What we need to see is this part- time significant increase move more into the full-time area.”
The Canadian employment report restores the nation’s status as having regained all the jobs lost in the recession. A Jan. 28 revision based on updated census data reduced Statistics Canada’s estimate of total employment.
The euro fell 1.3 percent yesterday, the most since November, as European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said inflation has been prompted “mainly” by rising energy and commodity costs, dimming prospects for a boost in the target lending rate from a record low 1 percent.
Bernanke on Economy
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday in a speech in Washington that the U.S. needs to see faster job growth for a sufficient time before policy makers can be assured the economic recovery has taken hold.
Bad weather prevented 886,000 Americans from going to work in the January survey week, the Labor Department’s survey of households showed today. That compares with an average of 282,000 over the previous five Januarys.
Economists at Morgan Stanley said before the report a figure around 475,000 would be consistent with about a 50,000 reduction in overall payrolls.
