LONDON: World share prices slid on Friday, while government bonds rose and the dollar dropped against the yen after US employers axed a shocking 533,
000 jobs in November for the weakest performance in 34 years.
The dire non-farm payrolls report reflected the mounting toll of a deepening recession on the US labour market, raising implied chances of an aggressive Federal Reserve interest rate cut this month.
The Labor Department said the unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent last month, the highest reading since 1993, compared with 6.5 per cent in October, after widespread losses across the country's major industrial sectors.
November's job losses were the steepest since December 1974, when 602,000 jobs were shed. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted a reduction of 340,000 jobs. "It's just a disaster. You've got the biggest job losses in 35 years and on top of that about 200,000 of backward revisions," said Stephen Stanley, chief U.S. Economist, at RBS Greenwich.
Futures fully price a 50 basis point US interest rate cut, which would take the fed funds rate to 0.50 percent. The implied prospects for a cut to 0.25 percent jumped to 76 percent from 64 percent late on Thursday. The euro zone, Britain, Sweden, New Zealand and Denmark all cut interest rates aggressively on Thursday.
World share prices as measured by MSCI's all-country index extended early losses to fall 1.2 percent, while US stock futures were down around 2 percent - pointing to a lower Wall Street open. Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes were trading 10/32 higher in price for a yield of 2.52 percent compared with 2.56 percent late on Thursday.
Benchmark yields, which move inversely to prices, are trading at the lowest in over five decades. Oil fell towards $42 a barrel.
