Economy

The unemployment rate for Black men fell to 5.3% in October from 5.8% a month earlier, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday.
That was for the wrong reasons, however — labor force participation and the employment to population ratio fell.
Black and Hispanic workers still have higher rates of unemployment than white counterparts.

A Now Hiring sign at a Dunkin’ restaurant on September 21, 2021 in Hallandale, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

The unemployment rate for Black men ticked down in October while it rose for most other groups, but that may be because workers are dropping out of the labor force.
The October nonfarm payrolls print showed that the U.S. economy added 261,000 jobs in the month and that the unemployment rate for all workers increased to 3.7% from 3.5%.

For Black men, unemployment fell to 5.3% from 5.8% a month earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis. White unemployment rose to 3.2% overall up from 3.1% a month earlier.  
“It went in the right direction for the wrong reasons,” said Bill Spriggs, an economics professor at Howard University and chief economist for the AFL-CIO.

The wrong reasons

The downward motion in unemployment for Black men is likely due to the labor force participation rate, which dipped slightly to 67.2% in October, just below the previous month’s reading of 68%.
In addition, the employment-to-population ratio for Black men fell to 63.6% from 64.1% in September, which could indicate that workers have stopped looking for jobs, sending unemployment lower.
Unemployment for Hispanic workers also jumped in October, outpacing the uptick for Black and white workers. It jumped to 4.2% from 3.8% in September.

“It’s showing this continued frustration that workers of color are having in the labor market,” said Spriggs. Though overall there is strength in the labor market, “this is not the tight labor market where people can just walk in and get a job no matter who they are.”
Overall Black unemployment ticked up led by Black women. In October, the unemployment rate for Black women jumped to 5.8% from 5.4% in September.
“This is concerning because throughout both the pandemic and the economic recovery from the pandemic crisis, Black women have been lagging behind,” said Kate Bahn, director of economic policy and chief economist at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a non-profit

On the brighter side, the employment to population ratio for Black women didn’t change, though labor market participation ticked up during the month. That could be a sign that more Black women are returning to the labor force and are looking for jobs but haven’t yet found employment, noted Valerie Wilson, director of the program on race, ethnicity and the economy at the Economic Policy Institute.
“It doesn’t suggest that there’s a huge number of people losing jobs,” she said.

Going forward

Of course, one month of data does not make a trend, so it’s important to look at the longer-term picture for workers of color.
Generally, the unemployment rate for workers of color has stepped down in recent months in-line with white counterparts, and labor force participation and the employment to population ratio have mostly held steady, said Wilson.
Still, there may be cause for concern going forward depending on how the Federal Reserve reads the October report. The labor market has remained strong amid historic interest rate hikes meant to tame high inflation, and the central bank is poised to continue its path of raising rates.
If the Fed goes too far and pushed the U.S. economy into a recession, that could have the worst impact on workers of color.
“If we throw the economy into a recession, that impact at least historically is more likely to hit harder in communities of color,” said Wilson.
— CNBC’s Gabriel Cortes contributed reporting.

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LONDON (Reuters) -The dollar fell on Friday, while stocks extended gains after data painted a picture of a U.S. economy that is creating jobs, but is starting to slow, tempering expectations for the Federal Reserve to keep raising rates as fast to fight inflation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said 261,000 workers were added to non-farm payrolls in October, above expectations for an increase of 200,000, but so did the unemployment rate, which rose to 3.7%, suggesting that some of tightness in the labour market could be easing.Wages meanwhile rose 4.7% year-on-year last month, after a 5% rise in September. The dollar fell against other major currencies, while stocks edged higher in volatile trade. “There are signs that wage inflation has peaked, and as we move closer to recession that number should come down,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.”This is an indication that with recession looming things are going to get ugly going forward. In a recession, wages don’t rise – they stagnate. This could be the last hurrah of hourly wages moving to the upside,” he said. The MSCI index of global shares rose 0.6% on the day, breaking two straight days of losses, but still headed for a near-3% weekly loss, after more big rate hikes this week from the Fed and the Bank of England.U.S. stock index futures were last up 0.7-0.9%, compared with gains of around 0.6-0.8% earlier on.Investors’ risk appetite was running fairly high on Friday, following signals from China that the government could relax some of its stringent restrictions around COVID.China will make substantial changes to its “dynamic-zero” COVID-19 policy in coming months, a former Chinese disease control official told a conference hosted by Citi on Friday, according to a recording of the session heard by Reuters. Chinese health authorities will hold a press conference on Saturday on COVID-19 prevention, according to a notice that said officials from the National Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention would attend. No other details were immediately available.The offshore yuan staged its second-biggest one-day gain versus the dollar in at least a decade, while China-sensitive assets, such as mining stocks, luxury goods makers and commodities rallied sharply, despite China reporting the highest daily count of new local COVID-19 cases in six months on Friday.”We don’t think we’re going to see any meaningful change in policy until at least after the two sessions meeting in March. So that’s a long way away between now and then,” ING regional head of research Robert Carnell said earlier on Friday.The Fed on Wednesday set its target interest rate another 75 basis points higher to a range between 3.75% and 4.00% and Chair Jerome Powell said later at a press conference that it was “very premature” to think about slowing the pace of monetary tightening. In currencies, sterling rose 0.7% against the dollar to $1.1232, paring some of Thursday’s 2% drop after the Bank of England said the economy as facing a two-year recession even as it raised rates by the most since 1989.”The dollar reception to the data is tepid (in large part because of factors like China/weekend), but multi-week this data is helpful,” Deutsche Bank (ETR:DBKGn) strategist Alan Ruskin said.In commodities, oil rose, fuelled by a weaker dollar and hopes for a relaxation of zero-COVID rules in China, which is home to some of the world’s biggest energy consumers. [O/R]Brent crude rose 3.6% to $98.08 a barrel, while U.S. crude gained 4.1% to trade at $91.78 a barrel.With the dollar on the back foot, gold rose 1.7% to $1,657 an ounce, heading for its largest one-day increase since Oct. 21. [GOL/] More

Nonfarm payrolls grew by 261,000 in October, better than the estimate for 205,000.
The unemployment rate moved higher to 3.7%, while a broader jobless measure also increased, to 6.8%.
Big job gainers by industry included health care, professional and technical services, and leisure and hospitality.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.4% for the month and were up 4.7% from a year ago.

Job growth was stronger than expected in October despite Federal Reserve interest rate increases aimed at slowing what is still a strong labor market.
Nonfarm payrolls grew by 261,000 for the month while the unemployment rate moved higher to 3.7%, the Labor Department reported Friday. Those payroll numbers were better than the Dow Jones estimate for 205,000 more jobs, but worse than the 3.5% estimate for the unemployment rate.

Although the number was better than expected, it still marked the slowest pace of job gains since December 2020.

Average hourly earnings grew 4.7% from a year ago and 0.4% for the month, indicating that wage growth is still likely to serve as a price pressure as worker pay is still well short of the rate of inflation. The yearly growth met expectations while the monthly gain was slightly ahead of the 0.3% estimate.
Health care led job gains, adding 53,000 positions, while professional and technical services contributed 43,000, and manufacturing grew by 32,000.
Leisure and hospitality also posted solid growth, up 35,000 jobs, though the pace of increases has slowed considerably from the gains posted in 2021. The group, which includes hotel, restaurant and bar jobs along with related sectors, is averaging gains of 78,000 a month this year, compared with 196,000 last year.
Heading into the holiday shopping season, retail posted only a modest gain of 7,200 jobs. Wholesale trade added 15,000, while transportation and warehousing was up 8,000.

The unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage point even though the labor force participation rate declined by one-tenth of a point to 62.2%. An alternative measure of unemployment, which includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons, also edged higher to 6.8%.
Stock market futures rose following the nonfarm payrolls release, while Treasury yields also were higher.
September’s jobs number was revised higher, to 315,000, an increase of 52,000 from the original estimate. August’s number moved lower by 23,000 to 292,000.
The new figures come as the Fed is on a campaign to bring down inflation running at an annual rate of 8.2%, according to one government gauge. Earlier this week, the central bank approved its fourth consecutive 0.75 percentage point interest rate increase, taking benchmark borrowing rates to a range of 3.75%-4%.
Those hikes are aimed in part at cooling a labor market where there are still nearly two jobs for every available unemployed worker. Even with the reduced pace, job growth has been well ahead of its pre-pandemic level, in which monthly payroll growth averaged 164,000 in 2019.
But Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets, said the broader picture is of a slowly deteriorating labor market.
“This thing doesn’t fall of a cliff. It’s a grind into a slower backdrop,” he said. “It works this way every time. So the fact that people want to hang their hat on this lagging indicator to determine where we are going is sort of laughable.”
Indeed, there have been signs of cracks lately.
Amazon on Thursday said it is pausing hiring for roles in its corporate workforce, an announcement that came after the online retail behemoth said it was halting new hires for its corporate retail jobs.
Also, Apple said it will be freezing new hires except for research and development. Ride-hailing company Lyft reported it will be slicing 13% of its workforce, while online payments company Stripe said it is cutting 14% of its workers.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday characterized the labor market as “overheated” and said the current pace of wage gains is “well above” what would be consistent with the central bank’s 2% inflation target.
“Demand is still strong,” said Amy Glaser, senior vice president of business operations at Adecco, a staffing and recruiting firm. “Everyone is anticipating at some point that we’ll start to see a shift in demand. But so far we’re continuing to see the labor market defying the law of supply and demand.”
Glaser said demand is especially strong in warehousing, retail and hospitality, the sector hardest hit by the Covid pandemic.
This is breaking news. Please check back here for updates.

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Employment in the goods producing sector grew by a net 45,100 jobs, largely in both construction and manufacturing. The services sector was up by a net 63,200 positions, mostly in accommodation and food services, as well as professional, scientific and technical services.Market reaction: CAD/STORY:Link:https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221104/dq221104a-eng.htmCOMMENTARYROYCE MENDES, HEAD OF MACRO STRATEGY AT DESJARDINS GROUP”The economy added a whopping 108K jobs in October versus expectations for an increase of just 10K. Gains were broad based across industries, with manufacturing, construction and accommodation and food services leading the way higher. All of the new jobs were in full time employment. The gains in October more than offset the job losses seen in the prior four months.”Population growth surged as a result of immigration, which meant that businesses had more opportunities to alleviate labour shortages. As a result, despite the hiring spree, the unemployment rate remained steady at 5.2%.”The annual pace of wage growth accelerated to 5.5% during the month. That will lead to more concerns that wage growth is becoming an independent source of excess inflation. Up until this point, wages hadn’t looked particularly worrisome in Canada. But the more this measure heats up, the more pressure will be on the Bank of Canada to continue its rate hiking cycle for longer than it previously anticipated.”DARCY BRIGGS, PORTFOLIO MANAGER AT FRANKLIN TEMPLETON CANADA”It’s very surprising … it beat expectations by a factor of 10.””If you dig below the details, if you use the 6-month moving average, the average gain is around 10,000 jobs a month. So I guess one of the big takeaways is that employment data in Canada has been notoriously volatile over the last five or six months … the moving average is increasing, although a lot slower than the headline would suggest.”DEREK HOLT, VICE PRESIDENT OF CAPITAL MARKETS ECONOMICS AT SCOTIABANK”It seems Bank of Canada Governor Macklem zigged when he should have zagged, judging by these numbers. They’re very strong. I’m surprised actually… It’s a very tight labor market, so to still be signaling that they can find workers against the trend of falling and participation rates, I think, is a pretty strong positive… It seems to be pretty solid with strong numbers under the hood.”The jobs numbers imply “for now, it does lean more towards the 50 (bps) kind of slant” of rate increase for the Bank of Canada in December. More

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Chinese markets soared and the yuan rose on Friday, with about a trillion dollars added to the value of Chinese stocks in week, as rumours and news reports fed hopes for twin relief in U.S.-China tension and China’s tough COVID rules.The Hang Seng surged 5.3% and notched its biggest weekly gain in 11 years. The Shanghai Composite rose 2.4% for a 5.3% weekly gain, the largest in more than two years and China-sensitive assets around the world rose sharply.Bloomberg News reported initial U.S. inspections of audit papers at U.S.-listed Chinese companies – a long-running point of regulatory tension and risk – finished ahead of time, raising hopes that the U.S. officials were satisfied.Unsubstantiated social media posts flagging an aim to relax COVID rules in March have also driven optimism all week and seemed to get new momentum on Friday.A former Chinese senior disease control official told a closed-door conference that substantial changes to the country’s zero-COVID policy were set to take place in the next five to six months, according to a recording of the session heard by Reuters.”Any indication that some rules could be relaxed would be an immediate dose of grease in the jarring cogs of China’s economy,” said Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.Focus was now on a press conference from China health authorities on Nov. 5. Gains were broad, overshadowing a downbeat mood in global markets on the prospect of U.S. interest rates rising further than previously expected. Property and tech shares led the way.Shares in online giants Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) and JD (NASDAQ:JD).com each rose more than 10% and the Hang Seng Tech index rose 7.5%. Property manager Country Garden Services rose 15% and an index of mainland developers rose 9%.Hedge fund manager Lei Ming said the re-opening rumour is just the trigger for a rebound in an oversold market.”The main reason for the market jump is that selling pressure had been exhausted after the market fell so much.”Gains in value, across Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Shanghai over the week are approximately $1 trillion. However the Hang Seng remains down 30% this year against a 24% fall in world stocks. The Shanghai Composite is down 15% this year.The rally extended to commodities markets with iron ore futures surging on Friday, and China-sensitive stocks listed in London and Europe.Miners such as Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) and Anglo American (LON:AAL) rose sharply along with luxury retails like LVMH and Swiss jeweller Richemont.U.S.-listed China stocks surged in premarket trading, with KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF and iShares MSCI China ETF set for weekly gains after sharp declines in October.Strategists at TD Securities continue to expect a gradual easing of zero-COVID restrictions, warning that markets could be in for some disappointment if investors are expecting something more rapid. Graphic: China, HK stocks market cap – https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/gdvzqrellpw/Pasted%20image%201667550293809.png BUY THE RUMOURChanges to COVID policies have not been officially flagged. A foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday he was not aware of the situation, when asked about rumours on social media that China was planning a reopening from strict COVID curbs in March.Bloomberg News also reported on Friday, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, that China was working towards relaxing rules that penalise airlines for carrying COVID-positive passengers.A foreign ministry spokesman later said he was not aware of the report and that China’s COVID policies were consistent and clear.An early conclusion to audit checks has also not been confirmed by either Chinese or U.S. officials. Yet markets have desperate reasons to rally after the Hang Seng hit a 13-year low last month in the wake of China’s Communist Party Congress.”I do not see anything new that has changed the Hong Kong and China investment environment,” said Frank Benzimra, head of Asia equity strategy at Societe Generale (OTC:SCGLY) in Hong Kong.”The only explanation I have is that the sell-off has been excessive post-Congress, valuation on some offshore names has been very distressed, and there is some bottom-fishing.”The currency joined in the rally, jumping more than 0.5% to touch a one-week high of 7.2340 per dollar.[CNY/] More

Futures contracts that settle to short-term U.S. interest rates added to losses immediately after the report, as traders priced in a bigger chance of higher interest rates, and then reversed course. The unemployment rate rose to 3.7%, from 3.5%, the report showed. Futures prices currently reflect close to even odds of a half-point rate hike versus a 75-basis point increase in December, about the same as seen before the report, and a subsequent continued march upward into next year, to a policy rate in the 5.00%-5.25% range. More

LONDON (Reuters) – Crypto giant Binance has processed Iranian transactions with a value of $8 billion since 2018 despite U.S. sanctions intended to cut Iran off from the global financial system, blockchain data show.Almost all the funds, some $7.8 billion, flowed between Binance and Iran’s largest crypto exchange, Nobitex, according to a review of data from leading U.S. blockchain researcher Chainalysis. Nobitex offers guidance on its website on how to skirt sanctions.Three-quarters of the Iranian funds that passed through Binance were in a relatively low-profile cryptocurrency called Tron that gives users an option to conceal their identities. In a blog post last year, Nobitex encouraged clients to use Tron – a mid-tier token – to trade anonymously without “endangering assets due to sanctions.”The scale of Binance’s Iranian crypto flows – and the fact that they are continuing – has not been previously reported.The new findings come as the U.S. Justice Department is pursuing an investigation into possible violations of money-laundering rules by Binance, which dominates the $1 trillion crypto industry, with over 120 million users. The transactions put the company at risk of falling afoul of U.S. prohibitions on doing business with Iran, lawyers and trade-sanctions experts said.In July, Reuters revealed that Binance continued to serve clients in Iran and that the exchange’s popularity in the Islamic republic was known inside the company. It was one of a series of Reuters investigations into Binance’s troubled history with financial regulatory compliance. The day of that article’s publication, Binance said in a blog post that it follows international sanctions rules on Iran and blocks access to the platform to anyone based there. The exchange’s billionaire founder, Changpeng Zhao, tweeted: “Binance banned Iranian users after sanctions, 7 got missed/found a workaround, they were banned later anyways.”Binance didn’t answer detailed questions about the new transactions uncovered by Reuters. In a statement, spokesperson Patrick Hillmann said, “Binance.com is not a U.S. company, unlike other platforms that have exposure to these same U.S. sanctioned entities. However, we have taken proactive steps to limit our exposure to the Iranian marketplace,” working with industry partners and internal tools.Binance declines to give details of the location or the entity behind its Binance.com exchange.Nobitex didn’t respond to questions for this article. Nor did the Tron Network, based in the British Virgin Islands, and its founder Justin Sun.In August 2021, Binance announced that customers would no longer be able to open accounts and use its services without identification. But since then, the exchange has processed almost $1.05 billion in trades directly from Nobitex and other Iranian exchanges, according to the Chainalysis data, which runs to November of this year. Since Zhao’s tweet in July, Binance has processed around $80 million in Iranian trades.Hillmann said in the Binance statement that the company requires full “Know Your Customer” checks for all users “and residents of Iran are prohibited from opening or maintaining an account. We are continually updating processes and technology as we learn about new risks and potential exposures. As a result of these efforts, including real-time transaction monitoring in coordination with external vendors, between June of 2021 and November of 2022, Binance’s exposure to Iranian-linked entities has seen an exponential decline.”The data reviewed by Reuters show that in total some $2.95 billion in crypto moved directly between Iranian exchanges and Binance since 2018.A further $5 billion in crypto moved between Iranian exchanges and Binance through layers of intermediaries, the data also reveal. Regulators say such “indirect” flows should be a red flag to crypto exchanges – an indicator of possible money laundering and sanctions evasion. Crypto users seeking to cover their tracks often use sophisticated techniques to create complex chains of crypto transfers.Nobitex advises its 4 million customers on its website to avoid “the direct transfer” of crypto between Iranian and foreign crypto platforms to “maintain security.”Binance spokesperson Hillmann told Reuters in June, in relation to the exchange’s indirect exposure to illicit funds, that “what’s important to note is not where the funds come from – as crypto deposits cannot be blocked – but what we do after the funds are deposited.” He said Binance uses transaction monitoring and risk assessments to “ensure that any illegal funds are tracked, frozen, recovered and/or returned to their rightful owner.”In addition to the Tron token, the remainder of the Iranian transactions were in major cryptocurrencies bitcoin, ether, tether and XRP, and a smaller token, litecoin.Binance is the biggest market for trading Tron, according to industry data. Some other major exchanges, including U.S.-regulated Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) and Gemini, do not list the token.Until recently, Tron has largely flown under the radar of cryptocurrency trackers. Market leader Chainalysis, used by U.S. government agencies, only began fully supporting the tracing of Tron this May, according to an email Chainalysis sent to a client. The Tron dataset details over 1.15 million direct transfers between Binance and Nobitex since April 2020, when the first Tron flows were recorded. The data include wallet addresses and a unique identification number for each transaction.Reuters obtained the Tron figures, along with further datasets covering the other crypto tokens, from three firms with access to Chainalysis’ Reactor investigation software. Reuters cross-checked each company’s figures. A fourth firm also confirmed some of the figures on direct transfers based on a separate dataset compiled using different software.Reuters is making available here the data for direct transactions since August 20, 2021, amounting to around $1 billion.The total volume of Iranian transactions flowing through Binance is far greater than through any other exchange, the data show. After Binance, the next most popular exchange for Nobitex users since 2018 was Seychelles-based KuCoin, which processed $820 million in direct and indirect transactions.KuCoin and six other Iranian exchanges in the dataset– CoinNik Market, Iranicard, Rabex, Wallex, Sarmayex and Tether Land – did not respond to requests for comment. Graphic: Binance’s Iranian connection Binance’s Iranian connection – https://graphics.reuters.com/FINTECH-CRYPTO/BINANCE-IRAN/movakmzjgva/chart.png SANCTIONS RISKBinance has grown explosively since its launch in 2017. The company extended its reach from crypto last month by investing $500 million in Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) boss Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter.The main focus of the U.S. Justice Department investigation is whether Binance violated U.S. anti-money laundering laws. As part of the case, ongoing since 2018, the department is also investigating Binance for possible criminal sanctions violations in connection with Iran, three people with knowledge of the probe said. In late 2020, the department sought records from Binance on its compliance programme, including any documents related to the transfer of crypto funds for people or entities in countries including Iran.The Justice Department declined to comment.The U.S. government reimposed sanctions in 2018 on Iran that had been suspended three years earlier as part of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers. The West and the United Nations have targeted Tehran since 1979 with sanctions over its nuclear programme, along with alleged human rights violations and support for terrorism. Six lawyers and sanctions experts said the Iranian transactions documented by Reuters put Binance at risk of U.S. “secondary” sanctions, designed to prevent non-U.S. firms from doing business with sanctioned entities or helping Iranians evade the American trade embargo. Secondary sanctions can choke off a company’s access to the U.S. financial system.Binance could also be exposed to direct “primary” sanctions if the company has what the U.S. Treasury Department calls a “nexus to the United States,” the lawyers and experts said. Such links can include any U.S.-incorporated entities, or transactions processed through the U.S. financial system or using the dollar, they said. Treasury didn’t respond to a request for comment.In 2019, Britain’s Standard Chartered (OTC:SCBFF) agreed to pay almost $930 million to U.S. authorities for criminal sanctions violations that included moving around $240 million via U.S. financial institutions for Iranian customers. Standard Chartered accepted responsibility for the violations. French bank BNP Paribas (OTC:BNPQY) in 2014 agreed to plead guilty to violating U.S. sanctions on countries including Iran and to pay $8.9 billion. Both banks committed to improving their controls.Binance says it does not accept customers in the United States. American clients are instead directed to a separate exchange called Binance.US, run by a U.S. company which since 2019 has been registered with the Treasury as a money-service business.Binance CEO Zhao has described Binance.US as a “fully independent entity.” Reuters reported in October that he in fact controlled the U.S. exchange and directed its management from abroad. A Binance adviser, in a message to executives in 2018, described the U.S. operation as a “de facto subsidiary.”In a blog post after that article, Zhao reaffirmed that Binance.US “operates independently from Binance.com.”The vast majority of the $8 billion in Iranian crypto transactions identified by Reuters involved the main Binance exchange. But Binance.US also processed crypto transactions worth $1.5 million from Iranian exchanges Nobitex, Wallex and Tether Land, the Chainalysis data show.U.S. entities that violate the Iran sanctions can face criminal fines of up to $1 million per violation. People involved can face jail terms of up to 20 years. This October, the Treasury fined Seattle-based crypto exchange Bittrex $24 million for violating sanctions on Iran and other countries by processing crypto transactions worth over $260 million. Bittrex said at the time it was “pleased to have fully resolved” the matter.Contacted for this article, a Binance.US spokesperson said Reuters’ figures for its transactions with the Iranian exchanges were not accurate and that including “direct as well as indirect transactional data from Chainalysis both conflates and inflates the volume you cite.” The spokesperson didn’t provide an alternative figure.Binance.US “adheres to all applicable U.S. rules governing digital asset exchanges” and only permits trading by entities that have completed a “rigorous screening process,” the spokesperson said.Nobitex and the other Iranian crypto exchanges haven’t been sanctioned by the United States. Reuters did not find evidence that sanctioned Iranian individuals, companies or organisations used Binance or Binance.US. Graphic: Binance and Nobitex – https://graphics.reuters.com/FINTECH-CRYPTO/BINANCE-IRAN/lgvdkmgzapo/chart.png “THE BEST (NYSE:BEST) OPTION”Nobitex, the largest Iranian exchange, launched in 2017. Its co-founder and CEO, Amirhosein Rad, did a doctorate in philosophy and chemical engineering at Iran’s Sharif University of Technology, his LinkedIn profile shows. Rad didn’t comment for this article.Nobitex’s aim, stated on its LinkedIn page earlier this year, is to allow Iranians to invest in crypto despite “the shadow of sanctions.” As sanctions have hit Iran’s ability to do business with the outside world, crypto has grown popular there for cross-border commerce. The exchange said it serves as a “safe bridge between 3.5 million Iranians and the world of cryptocurrencies.”Nobitex said in its 2021 annual report that it processes 70% of Iranian crypto transactions. The exchange has recommended that its clients use Binance in multiple posts on its website and social media channels, as recently as this year.Nobitex users began moving bitcoin through Binance in April 2018, the Chainalysis data show.In a trading guide on Nobitex’s website, first published in 2019 and updated this October, Nobitex advised users to open accounts to convert their Iranian rials into crypto and then make transfers to a foreign exchange such as Binance, which it called the “most reliable.” Subsequent posts in 2020 said that “for us Iranians, Binance is still the best option” and that Binance “causes fewer problems for Iranian users.”Noting the risk posed by U.S. sanctions, Nobitex’s public terms of use recommend customers avoid the “direct transfer” of crypto from Nobitex to Binance and instead create multiple digital wallets to move funds in separate stages.The volume of Tron transactions between Nobitex and Binance surged from August 2020, the Chainalysis data showed.That same month, Tron’s founder, Sun, said on Twitter the digital coin had enabled a new feature that allowed traders to mask their identities. Sun wrote that the feature, known as zk-SNARK, would “protect user data with the strongest privacy protection in the industry.”An article published in a Justice Department journal last year said the feature allows the development of “anonymity enhanced cryptocurrencies” that attract criminals “like sharks to chum” as they “seek out privacy to conceal their conduct.”Nobitex recommended that users open digital wallets with Binance to buy Tron due to its “high security.” A Nobitex blog post in July 2021 said zk-SNARK was key to keeping those sending and receiving crypto “hidden.”Nobitex customers remained able to use Binance to trade Tron and other crypto tokens after Binance tightened its checks on clients on August 20, 2021, according to the data. Binance processed direct transactions from Nobitex totalling over $1 billion between that date and November of this year, far outstripping any other international exchange, it showed. As recently as this October, $20 million in Tron flowed directly between Binance and Nobitex, the data show.Iranians sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for cyberattacks and ransomware activity have used Nobitex, a Chainalysis report in September said. Between 2015 and 2022, the digital wallets of sanctioned Iranians received over $230,000 in bitcoin ransomware funds, Chainalysis said, with most of the crypto sent to Nobitex.The Treasury said the same month that the sanctioned Iranians were all affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a powerful faction that controls a business empire as well as elite armed and intelligence forces in Iran. Iranian authorities did not respond to a request for comment. The Iranian Foreign Ministry has called U.S. sanctions “unilateral, illegal and cruel.”((reporting by Angus Berwick and Tom Wilson; additional reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London; editing by Janet McBride)) More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. employers hired more workers than expected in October, but a rise in the unemployment rate to 3.7% suggested some loosening in labor market conditions, which would allow the Federal Reserve to shift towards smaller interest rates increases starting in December.Nonfarm payrolls increased 261,000 last month, the Labor Department’s closely watched employment report showed on Friday. Data for September was revised higher to show 315,000 jobs added instead of 263,000 as previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 200,000 jobs, with estimates ranging from 120,000 to 300,000. The unemployment rate increased to 3.7% from September’s 3.5%. Average hourly earnings increased 0.4% after rising 0.3% in September. They were likely boosted by a calendar quirk.Wages increased 4.7% year-on-year in October after advancing 5.0% in September as last year’s large increases dropped out of the calculation. Other wage measures have also come off the boil, which bodes well for inflation. The Fed on Wednesday delivered another 75 basis points interest rate hike and said its fight against inflation would require borrowing costs to rise further, but signaled it may be nearing an inflection point in what has become the fastest tightening of monetary policy in 40 years.Job growth has remained solid even as domestic demand has softened amid higher borrowing costs because of companies replacing workers who would have left. But with recession risks mounting, this practise could end soon. A survey from the Institute for Supply Management on Thursday found some services industry companies “are holding off on backfilling open positions,” because of uncertain economic conditions.Still, the labor market remains tight, with 1.9 job openings per unemployed person at the end of September. More