Stock Market Update

The equity futures market continues to point to a positive start for the major indices following the 8:30 a.m. ET batch of economic data, but has dipped some from higher levels seen earlier:

• Initial jobless claims for the week ending February 22 increased by 22,000 to 242,000 (Briefing.com consensus 220,000). Continuing jobless claims for the week ending February 15 were 1867K (prior revised to 1867K from 1869K)
• The second estimate for Q4 GDP was 2.3% (Briefing.com consensus 2.3%; prior 2.3%) while the second estimate for the Q4 GDP Deflator was 2.4% (Briefing.com consensus 2.2%; prior 2.2%)
• January Durable Goods Orders were up 3.1% (Briefing.com consensus 1.8%; prior revised to -1.8% from -2.2%). Excluding transportation, durable goods orders were flat (Briefing.com consensus 0.4%; prior revised to 0.1% from 0.3%)