The US government has rushed to confirm that the economy added 116,000 jobs in October after the single most crucial report on the health of the world's top economy was accidentally released a day early. The botched release of the key Labour Department data on the Internet caused chaos in world financial markets, which had expected a much larger increase in US jobs, and prompted a government investigation of how the leak had occurred.

Prices in the bond market rallied after the number added to expectations the slower-than-forecast jobs growth in October would pressure the Federal Reserve to deliver fresh cuts in key interest rates to cushion an expected slowdown in the economy.