We have only had four trading sessions so far this week but, boy, what a long, strange trip it has been.

The world, and specifically the eurozone, was falling apart again on Monday (S&P 500 -2.5%) and Tuesday (S&P 500 -2.8%), but it was all better again on Wednesday (S&P 500 +1.6%)  and Thursday (S&P 500 +1.9%).

The respective mood swings appeared to be driven by the first and worst, and latest and greatest, perspectives on whatever the Hellenic was going on with Greece's call for a referen-dumb on the EU bailout plan.

The prevailing belief now is that the referendum will be tabled and that a new government, which will approve the bailout plan, will soon be formed following tonight's confidence vote on current prime minister George Papandreou, who has reportedly said he will step aside if he wins that vote.

Frankly, though, there are so many different reports on what might transpire in Greek politics that it is difficult to get a clear read on what is fact and what is fiction.  Stay tuned, because the curtain hasn't fallen on this drama just yet.

What is a fact today is that the yield on the Italian 10-year Note sits at 6.23%, showing that there are still misgivings in the credit market about the EU bailout plan itself, never mind what happens with Greece.  That yield had been 5.85% just before the bailout framework was announced and before ECB purchases that have occurred in the interim.  The trend here will continue to be viewed by participants as a key, near-term risk gauge.

Something else reported as a fact today is that the G20 failed to reach an accord on IMF resources. 

That doesn't surprise us considering many G20 countries are struggling with their own finances, making it difficult to commit to any specific funding levels at this juncture.  That news caused a dip in the futures market earlier, but those losses were recouped immediately following the release of the October employment report.

We'll call it a bit of a relief spike because the headlines were all better than feared.  Taking a step back, the major components of the October report were basically in-line with expectations.

Nonfarm payrolls rose by 80,000 (Briefing.com consensus 85,000); private payrolls increased by 104,000 (Briefing.com consensus 117,000); the unemployment rate dipped to 9.0% (Briefing.com consensus 9.1%); hourly earnings jumped 0.2% (Briefing.com consensus +0.2%); and the average workweek remained unchanged at 34.3 hours (Briefing.com consensus 34.3).

Notably, there were upward revisions to nonfarm payrolls for August (to 104,000 from 57,000) and September (to 158,000 from 103,000). 

With these revisions, payroll employment has increased by an average of 125,000 per month over the last 12 months.  That is not spectacular growth by any means, but it is factually better than many have been led to believe by the anecdotal views vocalized by bearish pundits.

The synopsis of the October report is that it matches a low-growth environment.  It also reveals, as have past reports, that there is still much work to be done to improve the labor market.

The number of long-term unemployed (27 weeks and over) remains far too high at 42.4% of the unemployed, as does the "real" unemployment rate (16.2%), which includes persons marginally attached to the labor force as well as persons working part-time for economic reasons.  This "real" rate essentially says one out of six eligible workers is either unemployed or underemployed.

The S&P futures have given back their post-report gains and are now down eight points at 1248.  That leaves them 0.7% below fair value in what can be considered the tiebreaker session in a week that has been full of tradable events, heightened volatility, and headline hysteria.

Come to think of it:  the long, strange trip this week is nothing too unusual for this market.

--Patrick J. O'Hare, Briefing.com

Patrick J. O'Hare is Chief Market Analyst for Briefing Research, Briefing.com's institutional research service.  To request a free trial, please email researchsales@briefing.com.