Economics Update

Weekly Jobless claims hold steady at 384,000, though the less volatile 4 week moving average went up a bit, 2,250 to 378,250.

In energy, we have oil hitting a new record. It has broken $140/bbl.

Retail gasoline is flat today.

Existing home sales are up for 2nd time in 10 months, though I think that a lot of that may be short sales and REOs.

We have the latest figures for Q1 GDP, and they show that GDP increased at a 1% annual rate. Note that core inflation was 2.3%, and 1% minus 2.3% does not give one a positive number.

It's more spending on food and fuel, not real growth.

All this news has the dollar down a bit, and I'm sure that European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet strongly implying more rate hikes did hastened the decline.