If the crowd’s worried about the possibility of rising interest rates, the anxiety isn’t showing up in utility stocks. This interest-rate sensitive corner of equities is comfortably in the lead among US sectors, based on a set of ETF proxies.
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● Weak US Retail Sales In Feb Raise Concern About Growth | NY Times
● NY Fed factory index has first positive reading in 8 months | MarketWatch
● US Wholesale Inventories Unexpectedly Rise 0.3% In Jan | RTT
● US home builder sentiment holds steady in Mar | CNBC
● US Redbook YoY retail sales index virtually flat in 2nd wk of Mar | TE
● China’s Li pledges more reform, tries to reassure on growth | WaPo
● Fed to Signal Worst Is Over, Hikes Coming | Bloomberg

US industrial production is expected to remain unchanged in tomorrow’s February report vs. the previous month, according to The Capital Spectator’s average point forecast for several econometric estimates. The prediction reflects a sharp deceleration after the previous month’s strong increase.
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Housing starts are expected to total 1.126 million units (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in tomorrow’s February update, according to The Capital Spectator’s average point forecast of several econometric estimates. The projection represents a moderate increase over the previous month’s level of residential construction activity.
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Retail sales eased 0.1% in February and a previously reported gain for January was revised down to a 0.4% loss, according to this morning’s update from the Census Bureau. Is the slide a sign of trouble for the consumer sector? Maybe, although looking through the short-term noise via the year-over-year trend still looks encouraging.
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Holding stocks for the long run has obvious appeal. The historical record shows that if you simply ignore the short-term noise and focus on the next 10 or 20 years, you’ll do fine, and perhaps substantially better than fine. The big risk is that you chicken out midway through the next period of subpar performance.
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● Mobius Sees Emg Mkts at Turning Point After Rout | Bloomberg
● Did China’s boom hurt the US economy? | TheMoneyIllusion
● Europe may still be stuck in a liquidity trap | BI
● Blackrock: Markets face headwinds from central banks | CNBC
● The Era of Free Trade Might Be Over. That’s a Good Thing | NY Times
● Eurozone industrial output rises 2.1% on Ireland surge | BBC
● Labor Protests Multiply in China as Economy Slows, Worrying Leaders | NY Times

US retail sales are expected to remain unchanged in tomorrow’s February report vs. the previous month, according to The Capital Spectator’s average point forecast for several econometric estimates. The average prediction marks a modest decline vs. the increase in the previous month.
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Positive momentum continued to lift risky assets last week, based on a set of proxy ETFs for the major asset classes. For the fourth straight week, the risk-on trade prevailed. The ongoing rally continues to pare the red ink in the trailing one-year-return column, which is inching closer to an even split between winners and losers.
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● Back From the Dead: Rate Hikes Are Getting Priced in Again | WSJ
● Fed’s Plans to Raise Rates Are Delayed, Not Derailed | NY Times
● Without Recessions, Americans Would Know Very Little Prosperity | Forbes
● Stocks For The Long Run? Maybe not | Fortune Financial
● Chinese Industrial Output Growth Slowest Since 2008 | RTT
● China Retail Sales Data Feels the Heat in Feb | CBN
● Germans Turn to Trump-Style Politics in Challenge to Merkel | Bloomberg