The markets have been down today, although off the lows, on the back of comments from ECB President Mario Draghi about the weakening current state, as well as the future state, of the Eurozone.  This has led to renewed concerns about the overall shape of the global economy.  Furthermore, talking heads are again worrying that the U.S. market has gotten ahead of itself as earnings estimates have come down and the global markets may not be as rosy as projected.

The greenback is on the rise, which is yet another headwind, especially for multinational companies.  This concern is reflective of the sell-off in cyclical sector coupled with the rotation into more defensive sectors. 

Today, Burlington Stores (BURL) and Kroger (KR) are plunging, down 13% and 10%, respectively, after reporting disappointing earnings and issuing downside earnings guidance.

On the economic front, initial jobless claims for the week ending March 2, were down 3,000 to 223,000 from the prior week’s revised 226,000. A better gauge, the 4-week moving average, was also down 3,000 to 226,000.

Continuing claims were down 50,000 to 1,755,000 for the week ending February 23.  Both were relatively in line with expectations and are indicative of a tight labor market.  Nonfarm labor productivity increased 1.9%.  The real outlier was unit labor cost, which increased 2%, significantly more than the 1.3-1.5% estimate.