Economic Journal - Tuesday, 4/3/2012

Stocks retreated Tuesday after opening the 2^nd quarter Monday in positive territory.  It was a relatively quiet morning in economic new around the globe.  In the US, the Commerce Dept. reported that orders for goods produced in US factories rose 1.3% in February just shy of estimates.  Orders for durable goods jumped 2.4% in February and orders for nondurable goods rose 0.4% compared with a 1.0% gain in January.  Later this morning, the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) most recent meeting minutes are scheduled to be released.  In company news, Chrysler Group is the first to report March sales numbers, with the auto maker reporting sales jumped 34% last month.  Around the globe, European stocks traded lower in a choppy session led by banks.  Asian markets rebounded today on positive US manufacturing data from yesterday.  The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index snapped a 4 day losing streak climbing 1.3%, while Japan’s Nikkei Index was off 0.6%.  Oil slipped 0.3% to 104.9 while gold edged up slightly to 1681.  US dollar was mostly down across the board but gained slightly against the euro.  30 yr. mortgage rates were flat at 3.98% while the 10 yr. treasury yield bumped down slightly to 2.17.  The CBOE volatility index opened flat at 15.66.