FOMC and Leading Indicators

Home Depot beat, but Wal Mart warned with forward guidance. The Nikkei 225 jumped 457 points up 3%, after falling 7.8% from its 5 year high on Feb 6th.

Gold after hitting a 25 year high of 574.60 Feb 2nd, last week at a 30 day low 534, on the rebounded this week to 556.

Oil up 3rd straight day as Nigerian rebels threatened more attacks after cutting output from Africa's largest producer by 19 percent.

Militants blew up a Royal Dutch Shell Plc pipeline yesterday, the latest in a wave of assaults that shut 455,000 barrels a day of output. March crude jumped over $60 2.7% to 61.50 intraday.

FOMC Minutes gave no surprises, there will be at least two more bumps and we predict 5.5% is where the Fed will finally stop. Today's release affirmed that the incoming data will dicate the Fed's course of action, and it need not be measured.
Full Minutes

Leading Indicators up sharply for the 4th straight month +1.1% vs prior +0.3% Inside the number: In the last quarter of the year, the CPI for services went from Sept 3.1 to Dec & Jan 4.6, a screaming 50% increase.
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