A smaller-than-expected 56,000 new U.S. jobs were created in October despite the fading impact of Hurricane Katrina, while total job growth over the two prior months was revised lower, a government report on Friday showed.

The report buoyed prices for U.S. Treasury securities as investors hoped it might make the Federal Reserve more reluctant to keep raising U.S. interest rates, but stock futures and the dollar dived.

The picture it painted of national labor markets was not entirely bleak, as hourly earnings rose and the jobless rate eased, and it was clouded by the department’s effort to assess the impact on jobs of hurricanes in August and September.