Gary Siegel

The composite index of Leading Economic Indicators was up 0.5% in February following a revised 0.1% increase in January, first reported as a 0.3% climb, the Conference Board reported Thursday.

Initial jobless claims grew 5,000 to 320,000 in the week ended March 15, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Thirteen of the sixteen members of the Federal Reserve Board expect next year to be the appropriate time for policy tightening, with a range of expectations for rates between 0.25% and 3.00% at the end of 2015, according to the Fed's latest summary of economic projections, released Wednesday.

Groundbreaking for new U.S. home construction slipped in February, dipping 0.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 907,000 units as building permits surged 7.7% to an annual rate of 1.018 million units, according to Commerce Department data released Tuesday.

Builders' confidence in the market for new single-family homes grew as the National Association of Home Builders' housing market index rose to 47 in March from 46 in February.

The Empire State Manufacturing Survey showed "business conditions continued to improve for New York manufacturers, though activity grew slowly," in March, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Monday as the general business conditions index rose to 5.61 in March from 4.48 in February.

The University of Michigan's preliminary March consumer sentiment index reading was 79.9, compared to the final February 81.6, the preliminary February 81.2, and the final January 81.2, according to market sources.

Business inventories rose 0.4% to $1.715 trillion in January, while sales decreased 0.9% to $1.303 trillion, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

February import prices rose 0.9% and export prices grew 0.6%, the U.S. Labor Department said Thursday.

Initial jobless claims fell 9,000 to 315,000 in the week ended March 8, the Labor Department said Thursday

The Treasury Department Tuesday auctioned $30 billion of three-year notes with a 3/4% coupon at a 0.802% yield, a price of 99.846425.

Wholesale inventories increased 0.6% in January, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

The Conference Board's Employment Trends Index (ETI) gained to 116.39 in February from a downwardly revised 115.99 in January, and is up 4.4% from a year ago, the group announced Monday.

U.S. inflationary pressures were higher in February, as the U.S. future inflation gauge climbed to 104.1 from the revised January 102.1 reading, according to data released Friday morning by the Economic Cycle Research Institute.

While the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecasts a rise in interest rates in the last half of 2015, its President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Lockhart said late Thursday he supports "continuing with a highly accommodative policy and deferring liftoff for a while longer."

Newly issued Treasury securities held in stripped form increased about $1.580 billion in February to a total of $208.615 billion, the Bureau of the Public Debt reported Thursday.

Now is the time to bring monetary policy back to normal and for the Federal Reserve, and other central banks to back away from the "interventionist" role they have taken since the crisis, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President and Chief Executive Officer Charles I. Plosser said Thursday.

New orders for manufactured goods slumped 0.7% in January, after dropping 2.0% in December, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Initial jobless claims fell 26,000 to 323,000 in the week ended March 1, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The European Central Bank announced its Governing Council held interest rates at its latest monetary policy meeting Thursday.