The unemployment rate rose to 9.7% after dipping to 9.4% in July. While rising unemployment is never a good thing the silver lining to this statistic is that the decline in payrolls was the smallest over the past year. Also, economists had been predicting a bigger drop so perhaps the rising unemployment figures are starting to lose some momentum.

The number of people filing for unemployment claims fell last week by 4,000 to 570,000. Economists had been predicting a larger drop, so this reading on the state of unemployment is being perceived as disappointing. Also, sales reports from several major retailers beat expectations but were still not particularly promising.

U.S. equities markets continued their downward trend on news that factory orders in July rose less than expected and employment fell by 298,000 in August. While it’s not much conciliation to the unemployed, the August drop was the smallest loss since September 2008.

Positive news for the U.S. housing market was released today showing the number of contracts to buy previously owned homes rose more than forecast in July and increased for a record sixth consecutive month. The index of pending home sales gained 3.2%. Gains for June were 3.6%.