Mel's Blog

Friday's bond market has opened in positive territory despite a stronger than expected reading in today's Employment report. The stock markets are reacting favorable also with the Dow up 165 points and the Nasdaq up 21 points. The bond market is currently up 12/32, but we will still see an increase in this morning's rates  due to weakness in bonds late yesterday.

The Labor Department reported this morning that the U.S. unemployment rate rose to a 25-year high of 8.9% last month. They also reported that 539,000 jobs were lost during the month, falling short of the 600,000 jobs that latest forecasts had predicted. This was the fewest number of lost jobs since October, giving hope that the shedding may be slowing. The average hourly earnings reading rose 0.1%, when analysts were expecting a 0.2% increase. Overall, the report gave us mixed results on the status of the labor market, but bonds and stocks have reacted favorably to its results.

                   Mel