US Sends Dozens More Refueling Planes To Israel Amid Widening Iran War, Oil Climbs

The US and its Middle East allies have already fired more than 1,000 PAC-3 interceptors using the US-made Patriot air defense system since the US and Israel launched the war with Iran on February 28, according to a report from Bloomberg. Lockheed Martin currently produces PAC-3 interceptors at a rate of about 600 per year, […]

Florida & Texas Lead Jobless Claims Rebound From Near Record Lows The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the first time rose last week to 211k (more than the 205k expected), but remain well within the range of the last five years, near record lows... Source: Bloomberg Florida and Texas saw the biggest rise in initial claims while California and Michigan saw the largest declines... Continuing jobless claims also rose modestly last week, up to 1.782mm Americans (but still well below the 1.9mm Maginot Line)... Source: Bloomberg Combined with last week's positive payrolls...

US Existing Home Sales Bounced In February As Mortgage Rates Tumbled Despite tumbling mortgage rates, existing home sales plunged (the most since COVID) in January, with some blaming 'below-normal temperatures' despite The West suffering the biggest declines (and unaffected by the winter storms). Consensus was for a modest 0.8% MoM decline in February (again despite an ongoing drop in mortgage rates) but sales actually surprised to the upside, rising 1.7% MoM. Perhaps even more notably, January's 8.4% MoM plunge was revised up to a slightly less crazy 5.9% MoM drop... Source: Bloomberg With...