Friday, November 6, 2009 9:23 AM
Premarket: Labour hurts
Simon Avery
North American stocks are primed to slide at the open Friday after both the U.S. and Canada reported higher-than-expected rises in unemployment figures.
The S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, Dow Jones and S&P/TSX 60 futures were down in advance of the open on the negative news, suggesting that the indices will fall during regular trading.
In the U.S., the unemployment rate went double-digit last month. The U.S. Labor Department said payrolls fell by 190,000 jobs in October and the jobless rate rose to 10.2 per cent. Those numbers exceeded what the experts had forecast: 75,000 job losses and an unemployment rate of 9.9 per cent.
Stats Can has just reported that Canada's unemployment rate also jumped. It was up two notches to 8.6 per cent last month as employers unexpectedly cut 43,200 positions. The data suggests that the country is still struggling for a sustained recovery. Economists had expected about 10,000 new jobs following two months of gains.
Weak job figures spell bad news for the markets when they are seen affecting consumer confidence and buying patterns.
Overseas, European markets are down marginally today, while indices in Japan and China are up more than 1 per cent.
The Canadian dollar dropped 0.17 of a cent to 93.83 cents (U.S.). Oil was down 78 cents to 79.62 in New York, and gold gained $2 to $1,089 an ounce.
