US job growth was historically weak last year. And US job growth was significantly stronger than expected at the start of this year.
In the January jobs report released Wednesday – a Schrödinger’s cat of employment snapshots – the seemingly opposed dynamics both held true.
The US economy added an estimated 130,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate ticked down a tenth of a percentage point to 4.3%, according to new Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
…
Health care and social assistance drove the lion’s share of last month’s employment gains, with an estimated 123,500 jobs added.That was followed by the 34,000 jobs gained in professional and business services, including employment services, administrative and other white-collar roles. Construction, likely helped by unseasonably warm weather at the start of the month, added 33,000 jobs.
Many other sectors, notably government (-42,000 jobs), either shed jobs or reported very weak gains.
The Employment Cost Index, which measures changes in wages and benefits, rose 0.7% during the last three months of 2025, marking the slowest quarterly increase since 2021, BLS data showed.
The markets reacted a bit:
The Canadian dollar edged lower against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday as stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data reduced expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, offsetting higher oil prices.
The loonie was trading 0.1% lower at 1.3560 per U.S. dollar, or 73.75 U.S. cents, after moving in a range of 1.3505 to 1.3618.
…
Canadian bond yields moved lower across a flatter curve. The 10-year was down 2.4 basis points at 3.338%, while the gap between it and the equivalent U.S. rate widened by 5.5 basis points to 83.8 basis points in favor of the U.S. note.
| HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices Values are provisional and are finalized monthly |
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| Index | Mean Current Yield (at bid) |
Median YTW |
Median Average Trading Value |
Median Mod Dur (YTW) |
Issues | Day’s Perf. | Index Value |
| Ratchet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.0988 % | 2,493.6 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.0988 % | 4,728.3 |
| Floater | 5.78 % | 6.03 % | 55,952 | 13.83 | 3 | -0.0988 % | 2,724.9 |
| OpRet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.1257 % | 3,676.3 |
| SplitShare | 4.75 % | 4.48 % | 83,696 | 3.03 | 5 | 0.1257 % | 4,390.2 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.1257 % | 3,425.4 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.70 % | 5.60 % | 552,411 | 6.76 | 7 | -0.0057 % | 3,063.0 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.64 % | 5.66 % | 50,857 | 14.38 | 27 | -0.6059 % | 3,362.4 |
| FixedReset Disc | 5.94 % | 5.95 % | 112,619 | 13.73 | 28 | 0.0641 % | 3,174.4 |
| Insurance Straight | 5.47 % | 5.56 % | 67,872 | 14.49 | 22 | -0.3391 % | 3,324.1 |
| FloatingReset | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0641 % | 3,776.3 |
| FixedReset Prem | 5.96 % | 4.32 % | 85,917 | 2.39 | 20 | -0.1799 % | 2,658.7 |
| FixedReset Bank Non | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0641 % | 3,244.8 |
| FixedReset Ins Non | 5.29 % | 5.47 % | 75,297 | 14.46 | 14 | 0.1108 % | 3,123.9 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| PWF.PR.S | Perpetual-Discount | -24.37 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-11 Maturity Price : 16.60 Evaluated at bid price : 16.60 Bid-YTW : 7.31 % |
| GWO.PR.Y | Insurance Straight | -4.31 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-11 Maturity Price : 20.00 Evaluated at bid price : 20.00 Bid-YTW : 5.71 % |
| BIP.PR.F | FixedReset Prem | -2.10 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-11 Maturity Price : 23.59 Evaluated at bid price : 25.60 Bid-YTW : 5.80 % |
| IFC.PR.F | Insurance Straight | -1.24 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-11 Maturity Price : 23.64 Evaluated at bid price : 23.90 Bid-YTW : 5.61 % |
| ENB.PF.G | FixedReset Disc | -1.23 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-11 Maturity Price : 22.01 Evaluated at bid price : 22.52 Bid-YTW : 6.33 % |
| IFC.PR.I | Insurance Straight | 1.04 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-11 Maturity Price : 24.05 Evaluated at bid price : 24.35 Bid-YTW : 5.61 % |
| PWF.PR.T | FixedReset Disc | 1.43 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-11 Maturity Price : 23.33 Evaluated at bid price : 24.85 Bid-YTW : 5.33 % |
| CU.PR.H | Perpetual-Discount | 8.70 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-11 Maturity Price : 23.69 Evaluated at bid price : 23.99 Bid-YTW : 5.47 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| BN.PR.N | Perpetual-Discount | 51,068 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-11 Maturity Price : 20.85 Evaluated at bid price : 20.85 Bid-YTW : 5.78 % |
| ENB.PR.F | FixedReset Disc | 44,905 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-11 Maturity Price : 21.62 Evaluated at bid price : 22.04 Bid-YTW : 6.29 % |
| ENB.PR.B | FixedReset Disc | 44,179 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-11 Maturity Price : 21.45 Evaluated at bid price : 21.45 Bid-YTW : 6.32 % |
| GWO.PR.Q | Insurance Straight | 41,400 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-11 Maturity Price : 23.15 Evaluated at bid price : 23.45 Bid-YTW : 5.56 % |
| PWF.PR.Z | Perpetual-Discount | 38,910 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2056-02-11 Maturity Price : 22.65 Evaluated at bid price : 22.91 Bid-YTW : 5.66 % |
| TD.PF.A | FixedReset Prem | 30,821 | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2029-10-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.51 Bid-YTW : 4.44 % |
| There were 24 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| See TMX DataLinx: ‘Last’ != ‘Close’ and the posts linked therein for an idea of why these quotes are so horrible. | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| PWF.PR.S | Perpetual-Discount | Quote: 16.60 – 21.89 Spot Rate : 5.2900 Average : 2.8356 YTW SCENARIO |
| GWO.PR.Y | Insurance Straight | Quote: 20.00 – 21.04 Spot Rate : 1.0400 Average : 0.6102 YTW SCENARIO |
| GWO.PR.S | Insurance Straight | Quote: 23.88 – 24.75 Spot Rate : 0.8700 Average : 0.5538 YTW SCENARIO |
| CCS.PR.C | Insurance Straight | Quote: 22.87 – 23.48 Spot Rate : 0.6100 Average : 0.3752 YTW SCENARIO |
| PWF.PR.E | Perpetual-Discount | Quote: 24.16 – 24.88 Spot Rate : 0.7200 Average : 0.5177 YTW SCENARIO |
| BIP.PR.F | FixedReset Prem | Quote: 25.60 – 26.18 Spot Rate : 0.5800 Average : 0.3918 YTW SCENARIO |