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March 15th, 2024
Insight on Plan Design & Investment Strategy Every Weekday
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| ECONOMIC EVENTS |
Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for February 2024, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $700.7 billion, up 0.6% from the previous month, and up 1.5% above February 2023, the Census Bureau reported. Total sales for the December 2023 through February 2024 period were up 2.1% from the same period a year ago. The December 2023 to January 2024 percent change was revised from down 0.8% to down 1.1%.
The Producer Price Index for final demand rose 0.6% in February, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Final demand prices increased 0.3% in January and edged down 0.1% in December 2023. On an unadjusted basis, the final demand index advanced 1.6% for the 12 months ended in February, the largest rise since moving up 1.8% for the 12 months ended September 2023.
In the week ending March 9, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 209,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 210,000, the Department of Labor announced. The four-week moving average was 208,000, a decrease of 500 from the previous week’s revised average of 208,500.
Interest on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.74% for the week ending March 7, down from last week when it averaged 6.88%, according to Freddie Mac. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.60%. Interest on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.16%, down from last week when it averaged 6.22%. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 5.90%.
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| MARKET MIRROR |
Thursday, the Dow fell 137.66 points (0.35%) to close at 38,905.66, the Nasdaq fell 49.24 points (0.30%) to close at 16,128.53 and the S&P 500 fell 14.83 points (0.29%) to close at 5,150.48. The Russell 2000 fell 40.54 points (1.96%) to close at 2,031.18, and the FT Wilshire 5000 Index fell 229.49 (0.44%) to close at 51,735.31.
The 10-year Treasury note decreased 30/32, bringing the yield to 4.295%. The 30-year Treasury bond decreased 1 27/32, bringing the yield to 4.435%.
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PRODUCTS
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Product & Service Launches
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Nationwide, Morningstar team up on adviser-managed accounts; OneAmerica launches active TDF series of CITs; Cullen brings first income-generating ETF to NYSE; and more. 
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ON THIS DATE: In 1933, lawyer and jurist Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court until her death in 2020, was born. In 1965, about a week after a civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, was halted due to violent opposition, U.S. President Lyndon. B Johnson delivered his “We Shall Overcome” speech, in which he introduced voting rights legislation that was passed later that year. In 1972, “The Godfather,” an epic drama about organized crime, premiered to universal acclaim; the Academy Award-winning film was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starred Al Pacino and Marlon Brando. In 1990, the Congress of People’s Deputies of the U.S.S.R. elected Mikhail Gorbachev to the newly created post of president of the Soviet Union. In 2003, Hu Jintao succeeded Jiang Zemin as the president of China. In 2011, antigovernment protests were held in several cities across Syria, considered the beginning of the country’s civil war. In 2019, more than 1.5 million students participated in climate change protests around the world as part of Fridays for Future, a movement started by 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg.
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