*** Fortune: Is Fannie bailing out the banks? ***
*** New York Magazine: Lloyd Blankfein’s Secret Facebook Feed ***
*** The Slope of Hope: Everything is Just Super! ***
*** FT Alphaville: Bernanke bashes the budget ***
*** FT Alphaville: Sovereign CDS, un petit complexe de Napoléon ***
*** FT Alphaville: And the financials all went down on Massachusetts ***
*** FT Alphaville: Peak smokes ***
*** FT Alphaville: Ill(inois) behaviour in the municipal markets [updated] ***
*** FT Alphaville: The Irish covered bond exception ***
*** FT Money Supply: PBIGS? ***
*** The Big Picture: Top 10 greatest trades of all time (?) ***
*** The Big Picture: A Victory for Rule of law, Property Rights ***
*** The Big Picture: Succinct Summation of Week’s Events ***

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Down 1.6%.

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Nonfarm payrolls rose 103.000 in December. The consensus was at 160.000, November reading was an increase of 71.000 (revised +42.000). The unemployment was reported at 9.4% vs. prior reading of 9.8% and consensus of 9.7%.

Private payrolls were up 113.000 vs. 180.000 consensus and 79.000 reading in November (revised +29.000).

Average weekly hours worked for private employees stayed unchanged at 34.3.

Huge miss in both nonfarm payrolls and private payrolls. Unemployment rate fell on reduced participation in labor force (lowest since ’80s). All in all weak report, especially having in mind rosy sunglasses sentiment.

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*** The Big Picture: What Does Today’s NFP Mean to Markets? ***
*** The Big Picture: Would a Time Machine Help Investors? ***
*** Calculated Risk: Employment Report Preview ***
*** Calculated Risk: Survey: Small Business Hiring Likely to Improve in 2011 ***
*** FT Alphaville: Happy new year from the Eurozone ***
*** FT Alphaville: Ashes to Ashes for the UK stock market? ***
*** FT Alphaville: The uncertainty premium in Spanish, Portuguese banks = 12 ratings notches ***
*** FT Alphaville: The Fed in 2011 ***

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