Optimism is growing that the longest U.S. government shutdown on record could end this week. A House vote is due Wednesday. Meanwhile, north of the border, bond yields opened the week flatter than a prairie horizon, thanks to a sparse Canadian data calendar.

💡Remembrance Day: With the national holiday on Tuesday, MLN will publish next on Wednesday morning. While the American lamented surprise layoffs last week, Friday’s big story was north of the border. For the second month in a row, StatCan pulled a statistically improbable rabbit out of its hat.

With three critical U.S. employment reports sidelined by the government shutdown this week, Thursday’s Challenger report—normally a second-tier, private-sector jobs survey—grabbed the spotlight. Bond yields tumbled when it revealed that October layoffs had shot through the roof, which is never reassuring unless you're in

💡See also: Mortgage Tidbits (below). The U.S. government shutdown officially became the longest in history on Wednesday, with no resolution in sight. Among other things, a prolonged shutdown cuts government spending, delays projects, derails federal payroll and kills a huge swath of data production. That is disinflationary and growth-negative,