"Jobs Shock: October Payrolls Huge Miss As Private Payrolls Print Negative For First Time Since 2020"

That headline is disingenuous. Everybody who pays attention to this stuff, including ZH had already done the math on the effect of two hurricanes and the Boeing strike and government hiring.

That said it is interesting to see the almost knee-jerk reaction by the machines and their human-automaton brethren: Bid treasuries up which leads to dollar down etc. Anyhoo, lifted in toto from ZeroHedge as this is a short version, if history is any guide, of what they will eventually end up posting (they are still digging into the details), November 1:

In our nonfarm payrolls preview last night, we said that the October payrolls report may show the first negative print since 2020. Well, moments ago the BLS reported the highly anticipated number and... it was close: the monthly print was only 12K, a huge drop from the pre-revision 254K in October (revised naturally lower to 223K), and just 13K away from a negative print.

The print was so low it was only above the two lowest estimates (those of Bloomberg Econ for -10K and ABN Amr0 for a 0 print). That means it was a 3 sigma miss to estimates.

And of course, as has been the case for the entire Biden admin, previous months were revised sharply lower once again: August was revised down by 81,000, from +159,000 to +78,000, and September was revised down by 31,000, from +254,000 to +223,000. With these revisions, employment in August and September combined is 112,000 lower than previously reported. This means that even after the monster September revision when 818K jobs were removed, 7 of the past 9 months were again revised lower!

This means that once the November jobs are released, we can be virtually certain that October will be revised to negative.

But wait, there's more because while the total payroll number was just barely positive, if one excludes the 40K government jobs, private payrolls was in fact negative to the tune of -28K, down from 223K pre-revision last month, and the first negative print since December 2020. In other words, we were right... when it comes to actual, non-parasite "government" jobs.

Developing.

"Ford to Halt F-150 Lightning Production as EV Demand Wanes" (F; TSLA)

For folks who don't follow this stuff obsessively the key takeaway is: It is hard to manufacture electric vehicles profitably.

From Bloomberg, October 31:

• Michigan factory to be idled for seven weeks from mid-November
• CEO Farley has warned of ‘slow uptake’ for plug-in vehicles

Ford Motor Co. plans to shut down the Michigan factory that produces its F-150 Lightning plug-in pickup truck, its signature electric vehicle, through the end of the year as demand for EVs continues to wane.

The move is the latest blow to a model that had been a centerpiece of Ford’s EV strategy and that Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley said would be “a test for adoption of electric vehicles.” The automaker will begin a seven-week shutdown in mid-November of the Dearborn plant visited by President Joe Biden in 2021, who drove a Lightning and declared “this sucker’s quick.”

“We continue to adjust production for an optimal mix of sales growth and profitability,” Ford said Thursday in a statement.

While Lightning sales are up this year, they are far short of Ford’s ambitious expectations as many mainstream car buyers eschew EVs due to high prices and a spotty charging infrastructure. Ford began the year by cutting Lightning production in half and reducing the factory to one shift of workers, while boosting production of gasoline-fueled vehicles like the Bronco sport-utility vehicle.  

Ford stopped shipping Lightnings in February for an unspecified quality issue. And then it cut the electric pickup’s price to stimulate sales.

Farley spoke of the “slow uptake of EVs” during Ford’s third-quarter earnings call with analysts Oct. 28 and predicted Ford would lose $5 billion this year on its battery-powered models. Ford shares tumbled as it lowered its profit guidance and said it continues to struggle with high warranty costs to repair quality problems with its models....

....MUCH MORE

Even for Tesla it took a while for the Cybertruck to get profitable.
From Barron's via MSN, October 20: "Turns Out, Tesla’s Cybertruck Is a Hit"