Stocks closed mostly lower yesterday with the big three indexes closing moderately in the red. But the small-cap Russell 2000, and the mid-cap S&P 400 managed to close modestly in the green.

The major indexes broke out to the upside last week after a friendly FOMC announcement. Even though the Fed held off on rate cuts last week (nobody was expecting one anyway), they suggested they were still on target to cut rates 3 times this year (presumably by 25 basis points each).

Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, also calmed investors' concern over the resiliently strong jobs market by saying, "strong job growth is not a reason for us to be concerned about inflation," and that "strong hiring all by itself would not be a reason to hold off on rate cuts."

The Fed did, however, say they will remain data dependent. And the next piece of inflation data comes out on Friday 3/29, with the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index. That's the Fed's preferred inflation gauge.

Last month's core (ex-food & energy) PCE index came in at 2.8%. That's still above the Fed's 2% target, but it's fallen more from 2022's peak of 5.3%, than it has left to go to get to 2%.

In other news, yesterday's New Home Sales came in at 662,000 units (annualized) vs. last month's 664K and views for 675K.

The Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey showed the General Activity Index fell to -14.4 vs. last month's -11.3 and the consensus for -10.5. The Production Index also slipped to -4.1 vs. last month's 1.0.

And the Chicago Fed National Activity Index improved to 0.05 vs. last month's -0.54 and estimates for -0.50. The 3-month moving average, however, came in at -0.18 vs. last month's pace of -0.11.

Today we'll get Durable Goods orders, the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, the Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index, and Consumer Confidence. (Given that roughly 70% of our GDP is comprised of Consumer Spending, a more confident consumer usually translates to a higher spending consumer.)

And we'll see if the market can regroup and build upon last week's upside breakout.

See you tomorrow,