Market Direction Weekly Closing Numbers

The economy

The stock market continued its recent show of strength over the past week as the S&P 500 climbed 1.6% since Friday to extend its 2016 gain to 1.8%. The Nasdaq outperformed slightly, climbing 1.8% for the week, but the tech-heavy index remains down 1.4% for the year.

Equity indices started the week on a quiet note, but buyers were not hard to find as the S&P 500 extended to a fresh high for the year on Wednesday. The index powered along even though economic data released during the week disappointed. For instance, the March Retail Sales report showed a 0.3% decline (Briefing.com consensus 0.1%) while March Core PPI (-0.1%; Briefing.com consensus 0.2%) and March Core CPI (0.1%; Briefing.com consensus 0.2%) also missed estimates. To be fair, cooler than expected inflation data can be viewed as something that may keep the Fed on hold for longer.

Interestingly, the disappointing Retail Sales report prompted the Atlanta Fed to raise its GDPNow forecast for the first quarter to 0.3% from 0.1% on April 8. The Atlanta Fed noted that March retail sales boosted the first-quarter real consumer spending growth forecast to 1.8% from 1.6%.

The past week marked the start of the first-quarter earnings season, which was largely unassuming. Alcoa (AA) kicked things off with a bottom-line beat on light revenue while major financials like JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), and Citigroup (C) followed later in the week. Overall, bottom-line beats were not hard to come by, but Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase reported respective revenue declines of 8.0%, 11.1%, and 3.7%.

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By the numbers the weekly closing index numbers compared to the initial sign-up and subscribe recommendation closing numbers: 

Stock Market Closing Numbers
compared to Recommendation Numbers
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Dow Jones	?	?	?
Nasdaq	?	?	?
S&P 500	?	?	?

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