“The purpose of trading is not being right, the purpose is to make money, and I think that’s my number-one rule. Don’t get hung up on your current positions.” -Dana Allen.

1. Inflation Picks Up to 3.2%, Slightly Hotter Than Expected — Consumer prices rose 3.2% in February from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Tuesday, up slightly from economists’ expectations of 3.1%. The second straight month of firmer-than-expected inflation is likely to reinforce the central bank’s wait-and-see posture toward rate reductions when officials meet next week. Still, officials are focused on when to cut rates rather than whether to raise them again. Inflation has declined notably from 40-year highs following the most rapid rate increases in four decades. Still, the report didn’t make the Fed’s coming deliberations easier. Core prices, which exclude food and energy items in an effort to better track inflation’s underlying trend, rose more than expected, both when measured from a year ago and a month ago.
2. Microsoft to Launch AI Assistant for Security Products — Microsoft will make its artificial intelligence product Copilot for Security available worldwide next month, its latest foray into integrating AI with its products. Microsoft’s previous launches in AI have been met with mixed reactions. The company’s launch of Copilot for Microsoft 365, which allowed the chatbot to integrate with Word, Outlook and Teams, was deemed useful by users, but some said it didn’t live up to the price. Copilot for Security can process prompts and respond in eight languages. The program also has a multilingual interface for 25 different languages.
Microsoft said Copilot for Security would be available in a standalone portal and embedded in existing security products from the company.
3. Wholesale inflation rose 0.6% in February, much more than expected — The producer price index, which measures pipeline costs for raw, intermediate and finished goods, jumped 0.6% on the month, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. That was higher than the 0.3% forecast from Dow Jones and comes after a 0.3% increase in January.
Excluding food and energy, the core PPI accelerated by 0.3%, compared with the estimate for a 0.2% increase. Another measure that also excludes trade services rose 0.4%, compared with the 0.6% gain in January, and was above the estimate for a 0.2% advance. Also, initial filings for unemployment insurance nudged lower to 209,000 last week, a decrease of 1,000 and below the estimate for 218,000, the Labor Department reported. Continuing claims edged higher to 1.81 million, though the previous week’s count was revised sharply lower.
4. U.S. Retail Sales Rose 0.6% in February — excluding autos, sales were up 0.3%. Economists had expected an increase of 0.4%, sans autos.
The monthly report on how consumers are spending or pulling back is viewed as a harbinger for the state of the U.S. economy. Many economists believe that Americans are close to spending down their pandemic-buffered savings and are feeling stretched by inflation, which has impacted the prices of everyday essentials from groceries to rent. Still, the Commerce Department said that the drop in January sales was sharper than previous calculations. January sales were revised from down 0.8% to down 1.1%.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 19th, 2024 at 12:11 pm and is filed under Weekly Summary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.