USA

Australian banker, Commonwealth Bank (ASX:CBA) has become a major shareholder in aircraft leasing company Air Lease Corp, having made an investment of US$125 million ($126 million). Commonwealth Bank CEO Sir Ralph Norris is a former head of Air New Zealand.

Australia's largest provider of pathology services, Sonic Healthcare (ASX:SHL) have initiated their acquisition strategy. The company purchased KBL-BML-Unilabo and Woestyn Laboratory in Belgium for $54 million. The company also bought Physicians Automated Laboratory, Inc., (PAL) of Bakersfield, California, for $30 million.

The US has lost jobs for the fifth month in a row at 5.5 percent as the jobless rate spiked (increasing by 0.5%) as a consequence of a class of students graduating schools and moving into the workforce. This is the largest spike in teenage unemployment since 1948. The spike was larger than every forecast from a Bloomberg News survey of economists. Allen Sinai, chief economist at Decision Economics in New York, has said that "Most of the economy looks in recession.'' Also Ten-year Treasury yields dropped to 3.92% in New York, from 4.04% on Thursday.