Evan O'Dorney, a 13-year-old speller from Danville, Calif., won the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee last night after correctly spelling the word "serrefine," which is defined as "a small forceps for clamping a blood vessel." O'Dorney represented the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., in this year's competition.

For anyone interested in productivity trivia (and hey, who isn’t?) or needs some conversation topics for the weekend: how many hours does it take for a car manufacturer to build a vehicle? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18960044/

The growth rate of government payrolls is now poised to exceed the growth rate of private sector non-farm payrolls. The last six times this happened there was a recession. Speaking of payrolls, we received a slew of news this morning. Non-farm Payrolls came out at +157k, the Unemployment Rate was unchanged at 4.5%, and Hourly Earnings were +.3% (+3.8% year-over-year). All of this was pretty much expected, and did not move the market. Personal Income was -.1%, Personal Consumption was +.5%, suggesting more negative savings rates on average. On the news the 10-yr yield dropped from 4.90% down to 4.88% but then shot up to 4.91%. A-paper mortgage prices are worse than Thursday afternoon by almost .250.

Yesterday we got smacked at 7AM PST due to three releases: The Chicago Purchasing Managers Survey, Construction Spending, and the “Help Wanted Index”. All three came out stronger than expected, leading analysts to reiterate that the economy is not doing badly, and in fact appears to be doing well. The 10-yr yield shot from 4.88% up to 4.91% (the highest level since August - is 5% the next stop?), and 30-yr A-paper prices worsened by .250.