Confidence and jobs sort of go together; that's why no one moved on the confidence report. People are working it seems. It's not really much of a surprise.

The drop in the (weekly) jobless claims number was key to the market's early weakness.

I haven't experienced a lull in trading like we've had in the last couple of weeks in years; it just seems no one really wants to make any huge bets going into the FOMC meeting, because they could say anything.

Overall, the new data were very positive for the economy and bad for bonds.

In light of the current economic and monetary development, inflation risks still exist.

But consolidation must take priority over any discussions about further tax breaks.