Update on Economic Data ...

Initial jobless claims came in better than expected with no revisions for the prior week; 334K (down 12K from prior week) vs 350K. Of course, the seasonal factor did its job as the non-seasonally adjusted figure was up more than 37K from the prior week. But as they say, these seasonal adjustments get cancelled out over the year; at least we hope so. 

Headline retail sales m/m change of 0.6% was higher than the 0.5% consensus. However, excluding auto and gas, the 0.3% increase was inline with expectations. 

The equity market is responding as well as it can with the S&P 500 being up 0.12%.