Canada's job creation machine was supposed to be broken.

Instead, its rusty gears just churned out a whopping:

• 66.6k net jobs in October (est. -2.5k | prior 60.4k)
• 6.9% unemployment (est. 7.1% | prior 7.1%)
• 4.0% wage growth for permanent employees
  ​ ​ ​

Even the most feathery of doves can't deny that these headline numbers were shockingly racy for an economy that's supposedly sputtering.

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 the severance-consulting business.

Let's hope that disaster hasn't spread north ahead of Canada's numbers on Friday.

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, but it's also (usually) rate-friendly.

Either way, markets found a headlamp in the data darkness. Specifically, 5-year yields defied gravity after services and U.S. private payrolls beat forecasts.

The budget is out, and the Liberal Government is spending big this year...

Because why stop now?

"Investments" in economic rebuilding resulted in a projected deficit nearly double last year’s estimate.

That aside, Ottawa's fiscal plan contained no bombshells for the housing market—and even a few goodies.

Canada's new budget has dropped, and it was mostly a snoozer for residential mortgage brokers—although slightly more interesting for commercial brokers.

We’ve distilled the relevant bits for the mortgage and real estate worlds below.

All quotes are directly from the budget unless otherwise noted. MLN's commentary appears in italics.

Bond rates moved higher on Monday, buoyed in part by manufacturing data that surprised on the upside.

More important is the scene being set for Tuesday’s federal budget release. Finance Minister Champagne claims it'll move Canada “from reliance to resilience” and “uncertainty to prosperity.”

Unfortunately, every time a Finance Minister uses inspirational nouns in sequence, a credit rating analyst gets chest pains.

It's always intriguing to learn about successful lenders who employ unique methods to create better borrower experiences.

Well, here’s just such a case. Exhibit A is Calvert Home Mortgage, a lender founded in 1975 by Everett Koeller and established as a Mortgage Investment Corporation (MIC) in 1981.

Calvert employs a strategy that few other MICs do, and certainly none I've reported on in the past 18 years.