All Things in Moderation

Vital Statistics:

Stocks are higher this morning as we kick off the second quarter. Bonds and MBS are down.

We have a lot of data this week, and some could be market-moving. The biggest report will be the employment situation report on Friday, however we will get durable goods, construction spending, and ISM data.

Retail Sales in February fell 0.4%, which was well below the Street expectations of a 0.4% gain. That said, January’s numbers were revised upward from 0.9% to 1.4%. Separately, personal incomes increased 0.2% in February, while personal expenditures rose 0.1%. Inflation remained below the Fed’s target with the PCE index down 0.1% on a MOM basis and up 1.4% on a yearly basis. Ex-food and energy, the PCE index was up 1.8%. For 2018, personal incomes rose 4.5%, while personal spending rose 4.4%.

New Home Sales came in at a seasonally adjusted level of 667,000, which beat the Street estimate of 615,000. This is up 4.3% from the revised January number and about flat on a YOY basis. New Home Sales is a notoriously volatile series, and the margin for error is generally huge. While new home sales have recovered from the bottom, we are still at 50% of peak levels, and when you take into account population growth, we are still well below what is needed.

Pending home sales slipped in February, according to NAR. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said February’s pending home sales decline is coming off a solid gain in the prior month. “In January, pending contracts were up close to 5 percent, so this month’s 1 percent drop is not a significant concern,” he said. “As a whole, these numbers indicate that a cyclical low in sales is in the past but activity is not matching the frenzied pace of last spring.”

Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan is out. The bank was unable to put its scandals behind it, and Democrats like Elizabeth Warren were calling for the Board to fire him. He decided to retire at age 58. “This was my decision based on what I thought and believe is the best for Wells Fargo, because there has just been too much focus on me,” Sloan said. “And it’s impacting our ability to move forward. I just care so much about this company and so much about our team that I could not keep myself in a position where I was becoming a distraction.”

Despite the action in the Federal Funds market and the dot plot, the Fed doesn’t seem to be ready to start cutting rates. Even dovish Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari is reluctant to ease monetary policy. For the most part, the Fed seems to view the recent economic weakness as influenced by the partial government shutdown and is anticipating a recovery.

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