Wall St. holds near unchanged mark after data flurry
Source: Reuters
BY CHUCK MIKOLAJCZAK
(Reuters) - U.S. stocks held near the unchanged mark on Thursday in the wake of a mixed bag of economic data, with the Dow and S&P 500 holding just off record highs while the Nasdaq advanced modestly.
U.S. consumer prices fell 0.7 percent in January, the biggest drop since 2008, as gasoline prices tumbled, and weekly jobless claims climbed to 313,000 last week, although durable goods orders rose for last month. The inflation data could provide a cautious Federal Reserve with leeway to keep interest rates low for a bit longer.
The market is "just digesting what we have already received and waiting for what is coming next week to find a better direction of where we are going," said Gabriela Santos, global market strategist for J.P. Morgan Asset Management in New York.
"We don’t think the market itself has accepted that reality of interest rate hikes in the coming months, so there is a lot of volatility that could come if the messaging starts getting more clear and more aggressive that we could get that rate hike soon."
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/26/us-markets-stocks-idUSKBN0LU1EB20150226
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Whatta crock.
Milk was priced at $4.99 for a 1/2 gallon yesterday at WINCO, the cheapest place one can shop where I live. I bought some one week ago and it was priced at $4.49 for 1/2 gallon. This is a 10% increase in ONE WEEK. It was Organic Valley milk, the type I prefer. I did not buy it however and bought another type that is locally produced for $3.39 1/2 gallon but it is not near as good.
Gasoline dropped as low at $2.59/gallon briefly several weeks ago. Yesterday, I spotted it over $3.00/gallon everywhere.
So yep, its a crock o'lies IMO and I don't care what the "statistics" say. No one is spending much as they seem to have a very small amount of money left to spend after they get out of a grocery store and gas up and god forbid that they might have an RX to fill!
The co-payment for a prescription that is highly necessary around here has gone from $40.00 ----> $100.00! 
All of these things have a name and that name is ... INFLATION!!!
