Thursday: Retail Sales, Unemployment Claims

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Thursday:
• At 8:30 AM ET, The initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released.  The consensus is for a increase to 175 thousand from 166 thousand last week.

• At 8:30 AM, Retail sales for March is scheduled to be released.  The consensus is for a 0.6% increase in retail sales. 

• At 10:00 AM, University of Michigan’s Consumer sentiment index (Preliminary for April).

On COVID (focus on hospitalizations and deaths):

COVID Metrics
  Now Week
Ago
Goal
Percent fully Vaccinated 65.8% ≥70.0%1
Fully Vaccinated (millions) 218.5 ≥2321
New Cases per Day3🚩 29,401 26,563 ≤5,0002
Hospitalized3 9,674 10,590 ≤3,0002
Deaths per Day3 452 517 ≤502
1 Minimum to achieve "herd immunity" (estimated between 70% and 85%).
2my goals to stop daily posts,
37-day average for Cases, Currently Hospitalized, and Deaths
🚩 Increasing 7-day average week-over-week for Cases, Hospitalized, and Deaths
✅ Goal met.


COVID-19 Positive Tests per DayClick on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the daily (columns) and 7-day average (line) of deaths reported.

Hospitalizations and deaths are declining.

New cases are increasing.

Financial Services

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