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
Competition. We talked about brazil, canada argentina, mexico spain and vietnam. And ive seen some of those products in the market, rice for example, 25 cracked and broken, got to be sifted before it can be served in hotels and restaurants. It is cheap by the time it gets but by the time they fool with it the quality deteriorates. No doubt the strong dollar over the last several years has put some downward pressure on our exports, its made our products more price higher priced products. Cubans have also diversified away from us to lower priced competition. During the global recession, cubas earnings from tourism declined along with declines in the value and volume of their allimportant nickel and cobalt exports. Remittances from cubanamericans also decline during that time and put a lot of pressure on the government of cuba and limited their ability to purchase products from the u. S. And, of course, the key thing to note about the cuban market is that the term market today is a misnom
Law, we will take your temperature. What is your view . Republicans 202 7488001 democrats 202 7488000 and independents i 202 7488002. Phone lines are oh then. Open. Caitlin is a reporter for the national journal. Lets begin with the Kaiser Family Foundation Poll released yesterday. What question do they ask people in this survey . Guest i think the prominent one was whether or not they have a a verbal or unfavorable view of the Affordable Care act. It was actually split. Host why is that . Guest that is a good question. The gap has been narrowing for a few months now. Even with 1 of the population, is than the margin of error. A point to the change of a narrowing down. Host how does this compare with devious polls on the Affordable Care act . Guest it depends how far back you are looking. Last month theres not much of a difference. This time last year, there is a slightly bigger difference. It has switched since this time last year. Host march marked the fiveYear Anniversary of the ord
Shpping. Dont hold your breath thinking that we are at the verge of breaking in a record. Not that the record numbers werent out there shopping. Lets just say that they werent doing a lot of buying one is much buying. So monday we did see a 3 decline. That is what the National Retail federation is expecting. Target sales . Dollar sales . They are seng a decline in the amount of the average person is spending. In the population increases every year. Overall we may see the total sales rise. But its th amount that the average person is spending and cybermonday is a different story. People have been collecting the offers, retailers have been getting very aggressive and so efficie. People are having more confidence to shopping online and getting products before christmas and thats driving more salesonline. Neil the argument is that more and more are veering with Online Purchases and that will maybe save the retailers. You agree . I agree that we will see more people doing this online. But s
Shopping. Dont hold your breath thinking that we are at the verge of breaking in a record. Not that the record numbers werent out there shopping. Lets just say that they werent doing a lot of buying one is much buying. So monday . We did see a 3 decline. That is what the National Retail federation is expecting. Target sales . Dollar sales . They are seeing a decline in the amount of the average person is spending. In the population increases every year. Overall we may see the total sales rise. But its the amount that the average person is spending and cybermonday is a different story. People have been collecting the offers, retailers have been getting very aggressive and so efficient. People are having more confidence to shopping online and getting products before christmas and thats driving more sales online. Neil the argument is that more and more are veering with Online Purchases and that will maybe save the retailers. You agree . I agree that we will see more people doing this onli