Cap off the best quarter since 2004. We have a labor market improving. Gasoline prices which remain low. The number coming in at 93. This is university of michigans confidence reading. 95. 4 is where it was in february. The average from january through march was the highest we have seen ends the Third Quarter of 2004. If you look at the various components within confidence you want to look at the Inflation Expectations in particular. It looks like Inflation Expectations over the next year remaining at 3 , which is what economists had predicted. We will continue to look through these numbers. Overall, not seeing as much of a drop in the confidence number as had been anticipated. Matt thanks very much. Breaking the march news, the Consumer Confidence number they are at 93. Number there at 93. The top business stories of the morning. Big news out of washington. The most powerful democrat in washington will retire. Harry reid will not seek reelection. He has been the democratic leader for
Ecb holds rates steady saying the risk of deflation have not decreased. The markets set to edge lower after a jump in claims. Plus, more trouble for citigroup as u. S. Authorities open a criminal inquiry into the banks mexican unit, so should you be worried about the companys stock price . A long legal battle starting up between tesla and the state of new jersey, well tell you how the hek carmaker is fighting back against the garden state. A lot for the markets to digest ahead of the jobs friday after the s p closes for a record high for a second consecutive session. The jobless claims are up to 326,000 and as we said the ecb does keep its key Interest Rate unchanged at a quarter percent despite all the concerns about deflation rinks. In a News Conference mario draghi said the drcentral bank will use all methods needed. They say if a 0. 5 cpi doesnt get your attention, what does . This guy is really on a mission to get that economy restarted. I think hes managed to be able to dodge the
The s p added 6 points. Gold lost 5 moving back below 13hundred dollars an ounce and oil gained 29 cents. In earnings after hours, the Container Store missed, while herbalife came in better than expected. Another drop in debt. The u. S. Treasury expects to pay off 78 billion of debt in the third quarter, thats almost double to the earlier projection of 40 billion. And, reuters reports allergan is targeting Biotech Company shire in a potential takeover attempt. Trader todd horwitz of average joe options. Com joins us to prepare the way for this trading day. Good morning to you. Good morning angie. We have the fed ahead this week. What are you anticipating . Any change in rates . Any change in policy . I dont think there will be much change at all. I think that theyll continue the course knowing that they will backstop the market at any chance they can. As we saw the action on monday, we saw the market way down and i think that somebody probably got a whiff that the fed would do somethin
He is going to tell us how he plans to double the size was 4 billion business within the next five years. The company the Just Announced a partnership with google next. We are on the strategy on the way. We want to get you down to d. C. The report card on the economic districts. 2 fed our chief washington correspondent is with us now with more. After thatew days disappointing jobs report, the suggests we may still have reason to continue to taper their bond buying. Reports from the 12 districts suggest Economic Activity continued to expand across most regions and sectors. Two thirds noted an increase in hiring. Nine districts said that the economy was growing at a moderate pace. Conditions improved over the. The outlook across the districts was genuinely generally positive. They said the outlook was positive, with most reports setting expectations of more of the same. Real estate continued to improve, although if you districts did report some slow growth in sales. Most noted there was
Buyers from wall street to Silicon Valley are lining up for the bitcoin option. The government is selling 70 million in bitcoin. How will that auction go . For more on the story, i want to turn to our resident bitcoin reporter, matt miller. You get all of the sexy assignments. It is cool that you think bitcoin is sexy. Of bidders. A lot they are for the most part anonymous. The Marshalls Office wanted to keep the identities under wraps. The Marshalls Office got a request from one and he hit reply all and 40 bidders instantly saw each others names. We know a few of the names because they have told us. Fortress investment group, very sober very , who explainedy to us how it is going to go and how he is going to get individual bidders involved in the process. A anybody who can put down 200,000 deposit can did on the auction. Doing, we are creating a syndicate. We are putting together all of the bids and we get more customers and we put it into the auctions of people can bid at lower dolla