EQUITY MARKETS

US

S&P500  -0.30%(2,355.54); NASDAQ  -0.57% (5,877.81); DJIA  -0.03% (20,656.1)

This week’s reports:

• February’s Consumer Credit Change rose to $15.21B from January’s upwardly revised $10.86B. Non-revolving credit such as student loans and car loans increased by $12.3 billion in February after jumping by $13.5 billion in January. Revolving credit, which largely reflects credit card debt, also rose by $3.0 billion in February following a $2.7 billion drop in the previous month. The Fed said consumer credit increased by an annual rate of 4.8% in February, as revolving and non-revolving credit climbed by 3.5% and 5.3%, respectively.
• March’s Unemployment Rate fell to 4.5% from February’s +4.7%. Labor Force Participation Rate remained unchanged from February’s 63%. Nonfarm Payrolls fell Sharply to 98K from February’s downwardly revised +219K.
• March’s Markit Manufacturing PMI fell to 53.3 from February’s 53.4 Markit PMI Composite fell to 53 from February’s 53.2. Markit Services PMI fell to 52.8 from February’s 52.9.
• March’s ISM Manufacturing PMI fell to 57.2 from February’s 57.7. ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI fell to 55.2 from February’s 57.6 .
• March’s Average Weekly Hours fell to 34.3 from February’s downwardly revised +34.3. Average Hourly Earnings fell to 2.7% y/y from February’s +2.8% y/y.
• February’s Wholesale Inventories remained unchanged from January’s +0.4%.
• February’s Factory Orders rose by 1% m/m from January’s upwardly revised +1.5% m/m.
• Initial Jobless Claims for the week ending March 31th fell by 25K to +234K. Continuing Jobless Claims for the week ending March 24th fell by 24K to 2,028K.

• US stocks ended a volatile session lower as investors looked past a US military strike in Syria and worse-than-forecast hiring data.
• The S&P 500 Index slipped amid volume 15 percent lower than the 30-day average, while the greenback capped its best week in two months.

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