EQUITY MARKETS

US

S&P500 +0.80%(2,362.72); NASDAQ +1.42% (5,911.74); DJIA +0.32% (20,663.22)

This week’s reports:

Q4’s 2016 GDP Annualized was +2.1% versus Q3’s +1.9%.
February’s Wholesale Inventories (prelim.) rose by 0.4% from January’s -0.3%.
February’s Personal Spending rose by 0.1% from January’s +0.2%.
March’s Consumer Confidence rose to 125.6 from February’s upwardly revised +116.1.
March’s Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index fell to 96.9 from February’s 96.3.
January’s S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices rose 5.7% y/y versus December’s downwardly revised +5.5% y/y.
Initial Jobless Claims for the week ending March 24th fell by 3K to +258K. Continuing Jobless Claims for the week ending March 17th rose by 65K to 2,052K.

Stocks in the US and around the world ended a strong first quarter with a whimper as investors wavered amid political and economic uncertainty. The RAND Corporation tumbled after South Africa’s finance minister was fired.
Since the start of the year, the S&P 500 is up 5.5 percent, its best quarterly performance since 2015, and the Dow has gained 4.9 percent.