Is the housing market strong or weak? Well, it's almost baffling.

I'm David Brancaccio. First we'll get the October jobs report in about an hour and a half.

It's the last accounting of the labor market before next week's elections and the Federal Reserve meeting next Wednesday and Thursday.

But as Marketplaces Nancy Marshall-Genzor reports,

the weakness today's jobs report reports are expected to show maybe two storms and a strike.

There will be a number of distortions in the October jobs report caused by hurricanes Milton

and Helene and strikes at Boeing and other companies.

Federal Reserve Board Governor Christopher Waller summed it up this way in his speech last month.

This report will most likely show a significant but temporary loss of jobs from the two recent

hurricanes and the strike at Boeing. I expect these factors may reduce employment growth by more than 100,000 jobs.

That's because some of the workers affected by the hurricanes and strike

weren't getting a paycheck during the survey period for the October jobs report,

so they showed up as unemployed.

Economists expect this to be temporary,

and the tea leaves do look pretty good,

with first-time applications for unemployment benefits falling. The Fed slashed interest rates by a

half-percentage point at its last meeting in September, largely because of weakness in the labor

market. It's expected to cut rates by a quarter point when it meets next week. I'm Nancy

Marshall Genser for Marketplace. Striking machinists at Boeing will vote on a new contract offer on

Monday. This one raises pay some more up to 38 percent over four years. But apparently little

movement on pension demands. Union members have rejected two previous packages that the union had recommended.

Retail gas prices are pointing to the national average dropping below $3 a gallon for the first time since 2021.

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