By Jennifer Coombs, Research Analyst

After this morning’s roller coaster, it appears that the market has finally settled into a rally by the afternoon. All but the NASDAQ have managed to re-enter green territory. Anxiety is still prominent among investors despite the initial wave of corporate earnings beating lowered expectations. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) cut its full-year forecast, citing the impact of a strong dollar, though adjusted earnings topped expectations. Weaker economic outlooks were also offset by a positive earnings report from JPMorgan Chase (JPM) which posted stronger-than-expected earnings growth, helped by a rebound in fixed-income trading.

Domestically, the market may have taken some wild turns, but overall, today’s economic data put a few big checks in the positive column. Firstly, the producer price index (PPI) for total final demand in March increased by 0.2% after falling by 0.5% in February. This was exactly in-line with economist expectations. Energy prices jumped by 1.5% in February while food prices decreased by 0.8% after a 1.6% increase in February. Excluding food and energy, producer price inflation rebounded slightly by 0.2% after falling 0.5% the month before, but came in above the consensus expectation for a 0.1% increase. Excluding all major components (food, energy, and trade services) the PPI rose 0.2% after noting no change in February. Ultimately, inflation at the producer level remains extremely low and today’s reading should also factor into the Fed’s decision to stay loose on monetary policy for a while.

Next, it appears that the effects of winter weather may be fading thanks to some relatively healthy retail sales numbers in March. For the month, sales rebounded by 0.9% after falling by a revised -0.5% in February. Market consensus was for a 1.1% boost, but the gain for the month is strong nonetheless. Excluding automobile sales, overall sales increased by 0.4% in March after reporting no change in February. When gasoline and auto sales were excluded from the headline number, sales rebounded by 0.5% following a 0.3% decline in February and were above the consensus expectation of 0.4%. When broken down by components, motor vehicles showed some relative strength for the month up by 2.7% over February. Sales at furniture, clothing, department stores and miscellaneous stores were also strong. Retail trade and food service sales were up 1.3% year-over-year, compared to 1.9% year-over-year in February. It’s more apparent that we’ve moved past the adverse winter doldrums and these retail sales should help give gross domestic product (GDP) numbers a boost in Q1-2015. The most important takeaway here is that it is still the consumer sector that is carrying the U.S. economy at the moment.

Lastly, business inventory growth did not exceed sales for the month of February. Overall inventories rose 0.3% for the month and were in-line with sales which were unchanged for the month. The stock-to-sales ratio came in at an unchanged 1.36. However, these are still the fattest readings since July 2009. There was one noticeable weak point and that was a further decline in sales at the wholesale level, a drop that has ultimately been inflating inventories across sectors. However, it appears that issues at the wholesale level have eased for the month, and the strong retail sales report means that there should be healthier wholesale levels for March. While inventory growth is a positive point for GDP estimates, much of the recent build was negative since it was the result of an underlying weakness in sales. Higher inventories also discourage companies from expanding and hiring, and this was also a likely factor in March’s negative jobs report.