You read the title correctly. In fact, household spending increased 2x the amount analysts expected, +1.3% in Feb. And, industrial production declined less-than-expected. The unemployment rate held steady at 4%, for the fourth consecutive month. Unfortunately, we aren’t seeing the wage growth that is necessary for consumer spending to really take off and pick up […]

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Another mostly uneventful day. Thank the laggard bank stocks and other non-bank financial stocks that were bought ahead of the new fiscal starting on Monday, for supporting the benchmark indices today. The Nikkei 225 gained 23.71 points (0.14%) to 17,287.65, or still about 1,000 points off its late Feb. multi-year high — just before the […]

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