Business

In what was otherwise a mediocre jobs report, in which the establishment survey reported that a lower than expected 261K jobs were added to the post-Hurricane economy, the biggest surprise was not in the Establishment survey, but the household, where the unemployment rate tumbled once more, sliding to a new cycle low of 4.1%, for all the wrong reasons, because a quick look at the participation rate metrics showed that in October there was a sharp decline, with the labor force part. rate sliding from 63.1% to 62.7%, back to 4 decade lows...

One day after the dollar slumped sharply on initial disappointment with the GOP tax plan, the greenback has rebounded ahead of a nonfarm payrolls report that is expected to show the US economy gained over 300,000 jobs in the post-hurricane rebound, and as investors reassessed the latest news on U.S. tax-cut plans. Stocks in Europe and Asia advanced, US equity futures were as usual in the green, while oil headed for an eight-month high on signs OPEC will agree to extend supply cuts.

Iran has suggested isolating the US by ditching the dollar during a meeting yesterday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Tehran.

Remonstrating against US threats to impose new sanctions and cancel the nuclear agreement, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei branded the US an enemy and urged Moscow to completely sever ties with the US currency:

"Across all regions, relative child poverty is projected to increase markedly," according to new research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The thinktank predicts an increase of more than a million in the number of children living in poverty, more than reversing all the progress made over the past 20 years.

Authored by Valentin Katasonov via The Strategic Culture Foundation,