Bill Losey’s Weekly Economic Update for March 22, 2010Inflation? What inflation? Inflationary pressures remain weak in this subdued recovery. The Consumer Price Index was flat in February; core CPI rose 0.1%. CPI only advanced 2.1% over the last 12 months of data. Core CPI rose 1.3% in that period, the smallest year-over-year gain in six years. The Federal Reserve forecasts core CPI advancing 1.2% for all of 2010. PPI drops in February. Producer prices decreased by 0.6% last month after a 1.4% rise in January; core PPI advanced 0.1%. Industrial production managed to rise 0.1% even with February’s rough weather. Tiny LEI gain. Another 0.1% advance here: the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index was positive for the eleventh straight month in February. Snow stalls housing starts. They fell 5.9% last month, according to the Commerce Department. Yet February housing starts and building permits were respectively 0.2% and 11.3% above year-ago levels. Oil drops, gold gains. Oil futures fell 0.69% across last week to close at $80.68 a barrel on the NYMEX Friday. Gold, however, gained $5.90 last week; even with a $20.00 drop Friday, it ended the five-day stretch at $1,107.40. Eight-day win streak for the Dow. That streak – the longest since August – helped the index rise 1.10% across last week to 10,741.98. Looking at the other two marquee indices, the S&P 500 gained 0.86% last week while the NASDAQ rose 0.29%.
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My Attorney Made Me Include This:
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