Succinct Summations for the week ending March 16th, 2018 Positives: 1. Jobless claims fell by 4k w/o/w, down from 230k to 226k. 2. Home mortgage applications rose a seasonally adjusted 3% w/o/w. 3. Industrial production rose 1.1% in February. 4. The housing market index still shows optimism, coming in at an index score of 70. 5. Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index remains high 56.2, falling by only .6% w/o/w. Negatives: 1. Retail sales fell 0.1%, missing expectations; Same store sales growth slowed by .9% y/o/y. 2. Producer Price index rose 1% to 2.8% y/o/y 3. Housing starts fell 7% m/o/m, much lower than expected. 4. ... (full story)