Market commentary

Weaker than expected retail sales helped revive bond prices this morning. Retail sales rose 0.2% in January, below economists’ expectations of a 0.4% rise, and December’s figures were revised downward from 0.4% to 0.1%. The weaker than expected January data along with the December revisions lower are troubling for a recovery counting on renewed consumer spending.
Import prices, an inflation measure, rose 1.1% month over month and 5.3% year over year in January. Both increases were larger than expected as food and energy prices continue to rise.
Mortgage pricing is .10% to .15% better than Monday.