Economic News For the Week

We had a JOLTS report and a debt auction today.  The job openings and labor turnover report was puzzling.  Last month there was a massive drop in openings, and today that report was revised down by another 100,000.  But against expectations of a flat February report, openings rose by 232,000.  Openings are still down by over 700,000 in the last twelve months.  Openings increased most noticeably in trade and transportation, financial activities and real estate.  There were declines in professional and business services and leisure.  Oddly, the number of federal government job openings was unchanged.  Seems particularly weird given DOGE.  The number of openings is now slightly higher than the number of unemployed persons.  The number of hires rose slightly, and the number of quits grew at a healthy pace.  (JOLTS Release)

Then we had a three-year debt auction.  These have been relatively strong compared to the longer-term debt ones.  Today’s, however, sold $58 billion worth at a slightly higher rate than desired but lower than last month.  Demand characteristics were also somewhat less than desirable.  In general big market participants have been shifting from stocks to bonds, so the mediocre auction is a little surprising, again, especially since the short-end has been pretty strong.  I think buyers are not convinced that the new administration will actually lower the deficit.