Data Watch - March 19th

CANADA

CPI for February surprised to the upside this a.m. as gas prices, food costs and mortgage interest costs were higher; core CPI was up 0.5% MoM vs. just 0.1% expected, leaving the YoY rate steady at 1.9% vs 1.5% expected; headline CPI was up 0.7% MoM and 1.4% YoY, vs. 1.1% in January and 1.0% expected; seasonal effects played a part here as well, as seasonally-adjusted numbers didn't pop up quite as much; the sagging loonie has had a bit of inflationary impact, particularly on items like furniture, due to costlier imports


US

initial jobless claims were about as expected (646k) and continuing claims continued to rise (5.473M vs 5.323M expected)

Philly Fed and Conference Board Leading indicators both came in a bit better than expected, at -35 (vs expectation of -39) and -0.4 (vs. -0.6), respectively, though the previous months LEI was revised down by three ticks, and December's was also revised lower; the coincident-to-lagging ratio was unchanged; the yield curve, supplier deliveries, building permits and money supply were the largest positive contributors to the LEI in February, while the largest negative impacts came from initial jobless claims, stock prices, consumer expectations and average weekly manufacturing hours


INTERNATIONAL

pretty quiet day for international data, but Japanese (both Toyko and nationwide) department store sales were down 12% YoY