Whenever I want a quick snapshot of the "market response" to the economic news of the day (as a signal of the news itself) I check the exchange rate of the dollar against the euro. It seems to respond in a more predictable way to the economic reports of the day than does the stock market. That doesn't make it "more right," it just provides a quicker sense of whether there's net good or bad news for the day. So, I clicked over today and noticed that the Euro spiked up this morning to $1.25.
Wondering why I checked the economic calendar, and note that while retail sails are up (good news for the economy), production is flat capacity utilization is flat, and consumer sentiment is down.
