All three major indices ended the session higher by 0.5%. Similar to yesterday, trading activities were quite muted ahead of several significant earnings reports. The economic news of the day was quite mixed. The headline PPI number for March increased 1.1% vs. 0.6% expected. Core PPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, increased 0.2%, matching expectation. The NY Empire State Index, which provides an early sign to the health of manufacturing activities around the country, jumped to positive 0.6 from negative 22.2 in the previous month. Economists expected a reading of negative 17. In addition, the Net Foreign Purchases for February increased to $72.5 billion, higher than consensus of $60 billion.

Financials finally broke its 5-day losing streak and ended the session modestly higher. Commodities once again became the winner of the day. The CRB commodity index advanced another 1.5% and is only 1% below its all-time high reached on March 13th. Both crude oil and gasoline hit new historical highs. Inflation clearly is not going away anytime soon - we may see some upside surprise in tomorrow’s CPI report following a flat reading in the previous month. Treasuries ended the day lower with the yield curve further steepened. The US dollar was traded higher again the yen and the euro but was mixed against others. After the bell, Intel’s earning report provided investors with some relief that it didn’t lower its sales forecast for the next quarter. But investors probably should hold their enthusiasm for the time being as several important economic reports along with earnings from financial bellwether JP Morgan are scheduled to hit wire before tomorrow’s opening bell. In addition, China is ready to report its Q1 GDP at 4:30am ET tomorrow and there is a possibility that the actual number may miss expectation as both exports and M2 have slowed quite materially recently.