Succinct summation of week’s events:
Positives:
1) Bernanke in his press conference implicitly says, “party on wayne, party on garth” as the end of QE2 in no way means tightening soon to follow
2) UoM and Conference Board confidence #’s up a touch in April
3) New Home Sales a punk 300k but higher than expected
4) Pending Home Sales rise 5.1%
5) Milwaukee joins NY mfr’g survey as exceeding forecasts
6) China HSBC pmi holds steady
Negatives:
1) Bernanke implicitly says asset price speculation with an eroding currency is the path to prosperity while it destroys the living standard of the lower and middle class that isn’t speculating in markets
2) Chicago, Dallas and Richmond mfr’g surveys below estimates
3) Initial Claims disappoint for 3rd week, 4 week avg back above 400k
4) Durable goods orders ex transports bit below est (but prior month revised up)
5) MBA said purchases fell 13.6% to 2 month low
6) Inflation expectations in confidence data remain elevated
7) Gasoline prices up another .05 to within .20 of record high
8) Euro zone CPI up to 2.8% 9) PIG yields continue to spike
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