Trader’s Narrative

The following is a guest post by a buy-side analyst working in a US asset management firm. The author’s comments are in italics. I welcome your feedback in the comments:

• Initial Jobless Claims: Survey 455 Actual 445 Prior 453 Revised 456

• Little Interest in the Long Term – Over the past four years, investors have increasingly demand¬ed interest rate contracts with maturities of shorter duration. – Bloomberg

• Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, increased to 10.1% in September — up sharply from 9.3% in August and 8.9% in July. Much of this increase came during the second half of the month and therefore is unlikely to be picked up in the government’s unemployment report on Friday. – Gallup

• Top Wall Street CEOs were in D.C. yesterday to meet privately with top regulators at the Willard hotel. Much of the discussion centered on Dodd-Frank implementation. The meeting was closed to press, but sources say senior Wall Street CEOs expressed relief that they at least now know what the new rules of the road are going to be (even if they don’t always agree with them). Politico
• Greenspan in the FT – “Fear undermines America’s Recovery” The continuance of uncertainty since the recovery took hold is attributed to the widespread major restructuring of our financial system and the burgeoning federal deficit – FT
• Change in Private Payrolls due out tomorrow. Survey: 75 Prior: 67