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US Stocks posted their fifth straight week of gains and erased losses for the year aided by more dovish comments from the Fed. The S&P 500 gained 1.4% and the Dow rose 2.3% for the week. Abroad, Japan was flat and Europe edged down 0.2% for the week. The yield on the 10 year Treasury fell over the week to 1.87% for the first time in five weeks due to the Fed’s comments. Oil continued to rebound finishing at $39.44 a barrel. Article
Fed officials dialed back their view of the US economy and said it would be unlikely for them to raise interest rates as fast as they had previously stated after their most recent meeting. They now expect to raise short term rates twice in 2016. Policy makers expect the rate to be 0.875% by the end of the year according to the median forecast. Article
Eurozone industrial output rose 2.1% in January over December, its largest jump since 2009 and outpacing expectations.
US retail sales dropped in February by 0.1% from January and January was revised to a decline of 0.4% from the originally reported 0.2% increase.
An ECB official said additional interest rate cuts were a possibility.
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