Mortgage purchase applications continue to track downwards, suggesting that most of the expected pop in housing sales in January was weather-related. |
New auctions will satisfy an unusual coincidence of needs on the supply and demand side of the fixed-income debt markets. |
Pressure to bump prices up, or levy temporary freight surcharges, will become more intense in September, |
Recoveries in Europe and Japan are gaining momentum. This should provide the underpinnings for respectable growth in exports. |
Retail sales rebounded with some surprising vigor. |
Services industries kicked off the second quarter with very impressive momentum. |
That was a gust of wind in the spinnaker. |
The budget deficit is like gaining weight. You are not really aware of it until at some point, all of a sudden you can't do what you want to do because you are heavier. Interest rates go up and slow things down. Then you go to your check up and the doctor tells you you got to lose 25 pounds. |
The economy is doing pretty well now in terms of momentum. |
The expected drop in aircraft orders is strictly month-to- month noise and does not have any impact on the outlook for growth. |
The Fed has been kind of on autopilot here for quite a while, ... Now all of a sudden they're going to have to start doing some work. I don't think a robotic response is appropriate here. |
The gradual cooling off of the housing market will be welcome news at the Federal Reserve. |
The major markets overseas - Europe, Japan and Asia - have fairly solid underlying momentum. Japan is certainly improving and Europe is more like the Queen Elizabeth slowly turning around. |
The manufacturing sector continues to steam-roll ahead. The stage is set for solid growth in the second quarter. |
The only consolation to farmers is that the price of seafood will go up further. So when production gets back on track, fish and shrimp producers can use the profits to recover their lost costs. |