Welcome back to Daily Chartbook: the day’s best charts & insights, curated.
Administrative note: DC will not be published on Friday, March 29.
1. New home sales. New home sales fell by 0.3% to 662k in February, below expectations of 675k. The median sale price dropped to $400,500 from $414,900.
2. Chicago Fed National Activity Index. The CFNAI "increased to +0.05 in February from –0.54 in January, suggesting economic growth increased."
3. Dallas manufacturing. The index fell "to -14.4 vs -11.5 est & -11.3 in prior month … new orders fell back into contraction alongside production and shipments; employment eased as well but remained in expansion … 6-month outlook deteriorated but remained in expansion."
4. Economic Surprise. “US economic data surprises have now turned negative.”
5. Crypto asset flows. Crypto assets snapped a record 7-week run of inflows (totaling $12.3bn) with record outflows of $942 million last week.
6. Institutions vs. Bitcoin. "The institutional Bitcoin net long and hedge fund Bitcoin net short lengths are at record levels."
7. Sentiment Indicator. Goldman's equity positioning indicator moderated from last week's 3-year high but remains in "stretched" territory.
8. Risk appetite vs. flows. "Risk appetite has plenty of room to rise further. But we are now entering a seasonally weak period for equity inflows."
9. Equity flows vs. personal income. "Equity inflows are now well into the upper half of their historical range relative to income."
10. Retail flows. "Retail buying has slowed down recently, but the market kept marching higher."
11. Corporate insiders. "The ratio of corporate insider selling to insider buying is at the highest level since the first quarter of 2021."
12. Global sector fund flows. Tech and Telecom saw outflows of $2.1bn and $1.7bn last week, respectively, while Energy (+$0.6bn), Materials (+$0.4bn) and Real Estate (+$0.3bn) all received inflows.
13. HF trading flows. "US Defensives saw the largest net buying in over 3 months, driven by long buying in Health Care and Staples."