Profitshop

So much for secular stagnation. A November surprise that included a jump in wages as well as the biggest hiring surge in almost three years suggests the world’s largest economy is putting aside doubts about the strength of the expansion. The 321,000 advance in payrolls followed a 243,000 increase in October that was stronger than previously reported, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The jobless rate held at a six-year low of 5.8 percent and earnings rose by the most since June of last year. “It’s pretty impressive,” said Ethan Harris, co-head of global economics research at Bank of America Corp. in New York. The jump in payrolls “is the kind of number you get in a booming economy.” From factories to offices and retailers, employers took on more staff last month, giving American consumers the bump in pay needed to drive holiday spending. Treasury yields rose as traders bet the improvement in the labor market will help reassure Federal Reserve policy makers that

Treasuries fell for the first time in three weeks as more-robust-than-projected jobs gains last month lifted odds the Federal Reserve would increase interest rates by mid-2015. Two-year note yields reached the highest level in more than three years as shorter-term U.S. securities posted the largest losses. Improving U.S. labor conditions fueled speculation of higher Fed policy rates in 2015, while declining crude oil prices kept inflation estimates in check. The Treasury will sell $59 billion in notes and bonds next week. “The Fed is really going to be in play in 2015, and maybe even more aggressive than we thought,” said Eric Green, head of U.S. rates and economic research at Toronto-Dominion Bank’s TD Securities unit in New York. “Longer-term debt is being supported, for now, as low-inflation expectations remain, given lower oil prices and an uncertainty as to how low they will go.” Two-year note yields gained 18 basis points this week, or 0.18 percentage point, to 0.65 percent i

Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Save Consumer borrowing rose less than forecast in October as Americans tempered their credit-card use ahead of the holiday-shopping season. The $13.2 billion gain in credit was the smallest in a year and followed a revised $15.4 billion advance in September, the Federal Reserve reported today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 33 economists called for a $16.5 billion increase. Households wary of taking on too much debt are being deliberate in using their credit cards to make purchases. At the same time, a faster pace of hiring and a pickup in wages are prompting Americans to take advantage of low borrowing costs to buy cars. “The trend has cooled off in recent months following a period of stronger growth in credit earlier in 2014,” Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co., said in an e-mail to clients. Still, the figures “continue to show a much stronger growth trend for non-revolving credit than revolving cr

Scientists know only two credible ways to prevent temperatures from rising to dangerous levels: stop burning fossil fuels or capture and bury the carbon dioxide byproduct before it gets into the atmosphere. The second idea, known in the trade as carbon capture and storage, or CCS, holds the allure of side-stepping the wrenching economic changes and political resistance associated with phasing out oil, natural gas and coal. One of the world’s most ambitious carbon capture sites opened in Saskatchewan in October, the first to commercially strip CO2 from an existing coal plant’s emissions.