Housing Still Tepid, Draghi Updates on QE

Economic Data

- (UK) Mar CBI Industrial Trends Total Orders: 0 v 9e
- (US) Feb Chicago Fed National Activity Index: -0.11 v +0.10e
- (US) Feb Existing Home Sales: 4.88M v 4.92Me
- (IL) Israel Central Bank (BOI) left Base Rate unchanged at 0.10%, as expected
- (MX) Mexico Q4 Aggregate Supply and Demand: 4.0% v 3.8%e
- (EU) Euro Zone Mar Advance Consumer Confidence: -3.7 v -6.0e

The DJIA and S&P500 are seeing modest gains this morning in a quiet session. As of writing, the DJIA is up 0.19%, the S&P500 is up 0.18% and the Nasdaq is down 0.10%.

More Fed officials have come out of the woodwork to talk about last week's change in tone. Fed Governor Bullard said markets were correct to see some dovishness in the dot chart as the dots moved lower, but also asserted that the Fed is not close to being behind the curve. Meister said June was still a possible date for rate hikes, but nothing is set in stone right at the moment. The euro has recovered more ground this morning, with EUR/USD rising as high as 1.0950 before retracing slightly over the last hour.

The February existing home sales numbers echoed the contours of the housing data out last week. The reading was slightly below expectations and more or less flat with the January figure. Sales were impacted by harsh winter weather, with turnover in the Northeast down 6.5% last month. Shares of the major homebuilders are up modestly in line with broader equity indices.

Crude prices remain well within the range seen last week, with WTI just below $47 and Brent below $56. In comments out earlier today, the Saudis deflected blame for the oil price crash, pointing out that non-OPEC sources pump 70% of crude. Oil Minister Naimi said Saudi Arabia saw no need to boost output to 12.5M since there was no demand, but also said the Kingdom was ready to boost output if needed.

The beaten-down share of thinly traded rare earth name Molycorp are up nearly 30% this morning after CBS's 60 Minutes ran a feature on the name last night. The news show asserted that China has cornered the market on rare earth minerals, and Molycorp owns the only domestic rare earth mine in the US. MCP spiked the $70/shr back in 2011 during the last round of rare earth fever, until analysts started pointing out that rare earth metals are neither rare nor expensive, and asserted China's monopoly could easily be broken.

Looking Ahead

- 13:15 (DE) German Chancellor Merkel with Greece PM Tsipras in Berlin
- 21:35 (JP) Japan Mar Preliminary Manufacturing PMI: 52.0e v 51.6 prior
- 21:45 (CN) China Mar HSBC Manufacturing PMI: 50.4e v 50.7 prior
- 23:00 (TH) Bank of Thailand to sell 3-month and 6-month Bills
- 23:30 (HK) Hong Kong to sell 3-month, 6-month and 12-month Bills