Mike McKee

That is down from 211,000 the week before.

In terms of continuing claims, we see 1,841,000.

That's up from 1,816,000 the week before.

People are mentioning tariffs, geopolitical official issues, and Iran are

already waning sentiment that's an interesting way to put it but people are feeling bad about the the war and current middle east unrest is already starting to impact business operations by increasing lead times costs container delays and the like bloomberg's

Retail sales, the advance headline number comes in up six-tenths of a percent better than forecast and certainly better than the negative two-tenths that we had in January.

Revised now to negative one-tenth.

Ex-autos, it's up half a percent.

And ex-autos and gas...

up by four-tenths of a percent.

The retail sales control group, the part that economists always look at because it goes into GDP, is up by half a percent versus a two-tenths rise in the month of January.

Consumer confidence is surprisingly stronger, 91.8 up from revised 91.0.

Present situation, 123.3 from 120.

And expectations, that's the only one that drops, 70.9 from 72.

You certainly ask interesting questions.

Yeah, if there is a takeaway, it would be that the Fed doesn't know what's going to happen because it does have this supply shock that's going to weigh on the inflation rate.

It could also, if the inflation rate stays up for a while, weigh on demand.

So the Fed is, as Powell repeated several times, well positioned to sit and wait for a while.

Now, if you look at Fed Funds Futures, they traded the opposite of where they've been during Powell's comments.

They now price in some cuts.