September jobs report changes calculation | Wilnesh News

Reversal of losses
Major U.S. stock indexes rose on Friday, erasing losses from the previous four days and ending the week higher. The rate of return is U.S. 10-Year Treasury Bond It was up about 12 basis points, almost 4%. Asia-Pacific markets rose on Monday. Japanese Nikkei 225 Index Leading the gains, with an increase of about 2.2% JPY The exchange rate fell below 149 against the US dollar that day.

Rio Tinto targets Arcadium
The world’s second largest mining company Rio Tinto The two companies issued separate statements on Monday confirming their interest in acquiring U.S. lithium producer Arcadium. Rio Tinto said the deal was still in the exploratory stages and might not go through. But if that happens, Rio Tinto will become the world’s third-largest lithium supplier.

Starboard Value Follow Pfizer
Activist investor Starboard Value holds about $1 billion in Pfizer shares and hopes to turn around the pharmaceutical company, according to people familiar with the matter. Starboard approaching Pfizer Former chief executive Ian Read and former finance chief Frank D’Amelio will be involved in its plans, sources said.

(PRO) “Asia’s next dragon”
Asian countries such as India and Japan have attracted interest over the past year due to their stable stock market performance. China launched a series of economic stimulus measures last week, sending its stock market soaring and putting the economy back in the spotlight. But one fund manager believes that “Asia’s next dragon” is not any of these countries.

Oh, and I was a fly on the wall when the U.S. Department of Labor released its final payroll statistics for September. I imagine an agitated official yelling, “Anyone use PRODUCT instead of SUM in Excel?”

Because it seems that only confusion between the multiplicative and additive functions may have contributed to our completely unexpected September non-farm payrolls increase of 254,000 jobs – about 70% higher than economists expected.

By comparison, August’s numbers were just 12% below expectations, and even July’s very disappointing report (which triggered the sell-off in early August) was “only” 37% below expectations.

The Fed may also have been caught off guard. “It’s doubtful the Fed would have cut interest rates by half a percentage point if it had known the report was so strong,” said David Royal, chief financial officer and investments at financial services firm Thrivent.

In fact, the report demolished expectations so thoroughly that it called into question the economy’s assumptions and models. That’s perhaps why the stock only rallied temporarily following the release.

Still, the numbers were big enough to erase losses from the previous four sessions. For the week, the S&P rose 0.22%, the Dow gained 0.09%, and the Nasdaq gained 0.1% — huge gains considering Thursday’s close was down more than 1%.

Perhaps the market’s cautious reaction on Friday was muted because the jobs report, while reaffirming that a recession has now been driven out, almost guarantees that the Fed will cut interest rates by up to 25 basis points during its November meeting.

There’s no need to act like a fly on the wall when the Fed discusses interest rates. They will publish the minutes anyway. Employment data is so important to the economy that I will continue to hang out in the Labor Department offices for now.

–CNBC’s Jeff Cox, Alex Harring and Lisa Kailai Han contributed to this article.