It’s been a rather muted session.  Investors do not seem too motivated to sell. And according to a report from Bank of America, the Flow Show report, globally, money has been flowing into equities.  In the past 5 months, $576 billion made its way into global equities, the highest level in 12 years, exceeding the previous high of $425 billion. 

PPI tried to derail the market when it was released. Producer Price Index for final demand rose 1% in March, topping estimates for +0.5%.  The cost of gasoline, diesel fuel, industrial chemicals, processed poultry, residential electric power, and steel mill products were the primary contributors to the increase. Year over year, it gained 4.2%, which is the highest annual read since September 2011. Excluding food and energy, it rose 0.7% , way above the consensus of +0.2%, and + 3.1% year over year, up from 2.5% in the prior month. The large increases in some of the indexes brings the inflation topic back into focus.

Key month over month standouts:

• The index for final demand goods rose 1.7%, due in large part to the 60% increase for final demand energy. This is the highest read since inception of the index in December 2009.  
• The index for final demand services rose 0.7 month over month in March due to a rise in the amount owed to margins for final demand trade services.
• Index for processed goods for intermediate demand increased 4.0%, the biggest increase since August 1974.
• Index for unprocessed goods for intermediate demand, rocketed 9.3%, the largest rise since November 2006.

Financials, Consumer Discretionary and Technology are the best performers on the S&P 500, while Energy is the worst performer.  Baker Hughes shows that US rig count remained the same as the prior week at 337. 

FAANG is mixed with Amazon (AMZN) the best performer of the group, up 1.8%, as the workers in Alabama plant resoundingly voted against unionizing.  Facebook (FB) and Netflix (NFLX) are the laggards.

Breadth is mixed with advancers leading decliners on the NYSE, but it is lagging on the Nasdaq.  Interesting, the reverse is true for the up volume versus the down.

Have a great weekend.  Be safe and stay well.