In the United States yesterday traders say it was jitters about the November employment report that took stocks lower into the close even though they had mostly traded quietly throughout the day. A relative bright spot Thursday was the weekly jobless claims number, which fell to the lowest level since September, 2008.

The number declined to 457,000, its fifth consecutive weekly drop.

However the report was eclipsed by the ISM report, which raised concerns about service sector jobs. BNP Paribas cut its jobs forecast as a result of that report, and now expects a decline of 160,000 non farm payrolls in the November report.

Today economists expect November’s decline in non farm payrolls to come in at about 125,000, and unemployment is expected to hold steady at 10.2%. The jobs report is released at 1:30pm. October factory orders are reported at 3pm.

A news wire story reporting rumours that Japan was considering the sale of a big chunk of Treasury bonds got trading desks buzzing but many dismissed it. They pointed to a rival story that speculated Japan was considering intervention to stop the yen’s rise against the dollar, a move that would make more sense and contradicted the first rumour.

The UK market and the European markets have opened down about 0.3%. US futures markets are pointing to a slightly positive start to the markets with the Dow opening up around 15 points.

© Brooks Macdonald Asset Management 2009

Sources: Reuters: BBC, Bloomberg, Lawshare, Deutsche Bank (db), Proquote, Financial Times, Wall Street

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