The Federal Reserve's announcement on Wednesday that it may stop buying bonds and start raising interest rates relatively soon appear to have been justified by Thursday's US economic data.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 320,000 last week from 315,000 the prior week but the four-week average declined to 327,000, the lowest level since late November, from 330,500 the week before.
The Conference Board's index of leading indicators rose 0.5 percent in February, the biggest gain since November, after rising 0.1 percent the prior month.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's factory index rose to 9.0 this month from minus 6.3 in February.
One negative, though, was in housing. Existing home sales fell 0.4 percent in February, pulling the sales rate down to the lowest since July 2012.
The generally positive US economic data was enough to push the S&P 500 up 0.6 percent on Thursday even as emerging markets, copper and crude oil fell.
No comments:
Post a Comment