April 14th 2014 – Stocks Advance on Retail Sales

My Market View:

The retail sales were better than expected in a market that is getting very oversold.  Particularly the Nasdaq stocks.  Earnings season is upon us and it will be closely watched as ever as an indication of the state of the economy.  The long cold winter took its toll, but perhaps Spring will put this volatility behind it.  I think a bottom is coming very soon if it is not here already.

Market News:

U.S. stocks advanced today, after the Nasdaq Composite briefly detoured into negative terrain, as investors embraced data that had U.S. retail sales jumping the most since 2012 while tracking tensions in Ukraine.

Benchmark indexes ended near session highs after scaling back on their gains late in the session.

Stocks initially rallied after figures from the Commerce Department had retail sales climbing 1.1 percent in March, furthering the notion that the U.S. economy is recovering after harsh weather curbed spending at the beginning of the year.

After a 22 percent rise last week, the CBOE Volatility Index, a measure of investor uncertainty, on Monday fell 4.6 percent to 16.25.

Monday’s data also had U.S. business inventories climbing 0.4 percent in February versus a 0.5 percent estimate.

Tuesday:  8:30 a.m.: CPI, 8:30 a.m.: Empire state survey, 8:30 a.m.: Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart, 8:45 a.m.: Fed Chair Janet Yellen opening remarks at Atlanta Fed conference, 9:00 a.m.: TIC data, 10:00 a.m.: NAHB survey, 3:00 p.m.: Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser, panel at Atlanta Fed conference, 4:00 p.m.: Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren, 8:00 p.m.: Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota

News Sources:  CNBC and CNN Money