Market commentary

Depending on which analyst or economist one listens to, the Retail Sales data today was great or it was a disappointment. The actual data for March reflected an increase in sales of 0.4% following 1.1% growth in February. Excluding autos and gasoline, sales increased 0.6%. If you are interested, gasoline sales rose 2.6% and accounted for the biggest gain in the subcomponents of the data. Not that folks were driving more, just paying more. Coming as no surprise to anyone in the mortgage industry, mortgage applications dropped 6.7% for the week ending April 8, 2011, as mortgage rates increased and the new compensation plans took effect. JP Morgan kicked off the earnings reports for the first quarter with net income of $5.56 billion, a 67% increase driven by a decline in provisions for mortgage and credit card losses. As of this writing U.S. stock and bond markets are trading flat to the close on Tuesday.