Free Republic

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada's economy created six times more jobs than forecast in June, a near-record gain that pressures the central bank to raise interest rates again this month even as cracks in the U.S. recovery threaten to cool the country's scorching growth. The staggering employment gain contradicts a recent string of weaker data, including another report on Friday showing housing starts fell in June. Statistics Canada said on Friday that employment surged by 93,200 in June, flying past market expectations for 15,000 jobs, led by hiring in the retail and wholesale trade sectors, while factories laid off workers. The...

NEW YORK (AP) -- The biggest increase in jobs in three years pushed interest rates to their highest level since before the worst days of the credit crisis in 2008. With the stock market closed for Good Friday, investors had a shortened day of trading in the bond market to react to the Labor Department's report that employers added the most jobs in March since before the recession began in December 2007. Treasury prices fell after the report, sending their yields higher. Bond prices tend to fall as investors' confidence grows and demand for safe-haven investments wanes. The yield on...