JOLTS plunge
It's taken a long time, but it looks like the US labour market may finally be cracking.
There was a huge decline in job openings to 8.8 million - down 1.5 million over the past 3 months, for the second biggest ever 3-month decline - which suggests that the unemployment rate will begin to rise sharply from here.
This was one of the biggest misses on record, and follows a series of downward revisions of late.
US 2-year Treasuries saw yields drop by 10 basis points to 4.90 per cent, as markets consider that the rate hiking cycle is increasingly likely to be finished.
Source: Bloomberg
Consumer sentiment is also very low, falling more than expected.
ZeroHedge ran through the numbers here.
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Westpac's latest Housing Pulse reported that consumers are still very cautious about buying property.
Nevertheless, housing price forecasts are now overall bullish for the next 3 years.
Source: Westpac Housing Pulse
