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*** FT Alphaville: Shorting bans aren’t much use ***
*** FT Alphaville: Undexia ***

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Baltic dry index rose 5.3% last week; Capesize Index was up 2.6%; Panamax Index rose 10.8%; Supramax Index was up 2.3%; Handysize Index rose 4.6%.

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Baltic Dirty Tanker Index rose 11.5%; Baltic Clean Tanker Index fell 2.2%.

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Nonfarm payrolls rose 103.000 in September; Consensus was at 60.000; August reading was an increase of 57.000 (revised up 57.000). The unemployment was reported at 9.1% vs. prior reading and consensus of 9.1%.

Private payrolls were up 137.000 vs. 90.000 consensus and 42.000 reading in August (revised up 25.000).

Big positive surprise

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Initial jobless claims in the U.S. were reported at 401.000 vs. 410.000 consensus and last week revised (up 4.000) reading of 395.000.

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ADP Employment rose 91,000 in September vs. revised (down 2,000) gain of 89,000 in August.

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Challenger’s count of layoff announcements was reported at 115,730 in September vs. 51,114 in August.

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Leading economic indicators are pointing to a recession. At the time being it looks like it could be a mild one, but taken into account all the unknowns (EMU future, China slowdown, bank balance-sheet question) it could easily develop into something more ominous.

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Baltic dry index fell 1.5% last week; Capesize Index was down 5.2%; Panamax Index rose 4.5%; Supramax Index was up 0.9%; Handysize Index rose 6.6%.

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Baltic Dirty Tanker Index rose 0.6%; Baltic Clean Tanker Index rose 4.9%.

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