jan 13  welcome to the home for realtime coverage of markets brought to you by reuters reporters you can share your thoughts with us at marketsresearchthomsonreuterscom when wall street rebounded this week after last weeks weakness strategists and money managers pointed to a boost from retail investors who decided to buy the dip peng cheng who works on global quantative and derivatives strategy at jpmorgan put out some numbers behind the story in a research note released this past week saw the strongest retail order imbalance in cash equities on record totaling 59 billion cheng wrote late wednesday the 17 billion inflow on tuesday was the highest singleday observation in history with 65 of the buying focused on exchange traded funds etfs interest in sp 500 etfs was particularly noticable he added and while growth sectors have had a comeback this week cheng said a number of value etfs were in the top 10 names bought by retail investors these included the energy select sector spdr fund  the financial select sector spdr fund and the vanguard value index fun  besides longtime retail favorites such as tesla tslao which saw 193 million in inflows financials had a strong run with bank of america bacn bringing in 131 million and citi cntaking 74 million in energy chevron cvxn saw a strong 92 million inflow still its worth noting that retail volume is a relatively small part of the market overall according to cheng retail market orders for large cap stocks was 83 of the market last week compared with 116 for small cap stocks while largecap volumes are roughly in line with activity at the same time last year smallcap volumes are 2 lower he said ppi jobless claims tell a tale of two waves omicron and inflation 1030 est1530 gmt a data duet released on thursday provided another glimmer of hope that the inflation wave has crested and supply chains are rightsizing even if swelling omicron infections are leading to longer unemployment lines the prices us companies get for their goods at the factory door usppfdeci grew at a decelerated pace in december with the headline final demand print showing a monthly gain of 02 comfortably lower than the 04 consensus read more on an annual basis ppi shed 01 percentage point to a stillwhitehot 97 the slowdown adds to slowly gathering evidence notably pmi data that the hobbled global supply chain is gradually finding its legs socalled core ppi which strips out volatile food energy and trade services cooled down as well rising 04 compared with novembers 08 gain yearonyear while core ppi growth didnt budge from 69 it remains hotter than consumer gauges cpi pce which suggests companies arent quite done passing price increases along to the consumer persistent supply disruptions will pin producer prices near record levels in the near term especially given a rapidly spreading omicron variant that will fan inflation pressures writes mahir rasheed us economist at oxford economics the ppi data adds to growing evidence that the fed will commence rate lift off in march and undergo balance sheet reduction midyear indeed as evidenced by last weeks fomc policy meeting minutes and federal reserve chairman jerome powells words before congress this week the central bank has removed its gloves and called out inflation with at least three interest rate hikes now in the cards this year read more the graphic below shows core ppi and other indicators all of which continue to sail well above the feds average annual 2 inflation target the number of us workers filling out firsttime applications for unemployment benefits usjobeci unexpectedly rose last week to 230000 defying the slight decline to an even 200000 economists predicted read more it was the highest reading in two months and sits comfortably within the range associated with healthy labor market churn but healthy churn unfortunately is not the likely culprit as rise probably reflects surging infections of the omicron covid variant rather than increased willingness on the part of employers to hand out pink slips amid the ongoing worker drought we expect some noise in the data owing to a surge in virus cases which may push up claims temporarily says rubeela farooqi chief us economist at high frequency economics beyond weekly moves filings will likely remain low given businesses will be reluctant to reduce their workforce amid a labor shortage continuing claims usjobneci reported on a oneweek lag provided the bigger surprise dropping to 1559 million and dipping below the 17 million level for the first time since midmarch 2020 when mandated lockdowns to contain the pandemic sent the economy into a tailspin the jobless claims data jibes well with the labor departments december employment report which showed the newly unemployeds slice of the total jobless pie increasing while the share of longterm unemployed is shrinking wall street initially greeted the data warmly opening solidly in green territory but slipping into reverse as the session got under way at last glance the dow was the sole gainer among the major us stock indexes while cyclicals and economically sensitive chips sox transports djt and small caps spcy were having a good day a major policy error may be in the works as the federal reserve prepares to raise interest rates with consumer confidence in sharp decline observes joe lavorgna chief economist for the americas at natixis in new york consumer confidence in the past 40 years has never been as depressed as it is now before a looming rate hike lavorgna says a sharp slowdown is in the offing because last years econmic boom was largely due to fiscal stimulus he says unlike the time prior to past rate hikes consumer confidence is on the wane instead of rising in fact the fed has never increased rates with confidence so low lavorngna said in a note in march 1983 when the fed nudged the federal funds rate higher the university of michigans consumer sentiment index was at 808 had risen 15 points from seven months earlier he said in january 1987 a rate liftoff began with the sentiment index at 904 after cutting rates following the stock market crash in october 1987 the fed raised rates in march 1988 with confidence at 946 and it was about the same in 1994 when rates were hiked and confidence was 932 lavorgna said confidence was 1073 when a hiking cycle began in june 1999 and at the beginning of the last two hiking cycles in june 2004 and december 2015 the index was at 956 and 926 respectfully the average starting value for consumer confidence over the past eight cycles was 943 with the trend moving higher the final december reading was 706 todays low and falling level of confidence hints of a policy error if the fed acts so soon lavorgna warned us stock index futures are higher early on thursday with the sp 500 eminis up about 03 after the latest batch of economic data including a report showing us producer price inflation slowed in december it showed other hopeful signs that inflation has probably peaked read more equity investors have been concerned about inflation with minutes from the federal reserves december meeting released last week signaling the central bank may have to raise rates sooner than some had expected to curb inflation the morning data also included a labor department report showing that the number of americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose in the first week of january amid raging covid19 infections the number remained at a level consistent with rapidly tightening labor market conditions however wall street ended higher on wednesday as us consumer prices data roughly met economists expectations easing some investor anxiety about inflation friday brings earnings reports from some of wall streets biggest banks including jpmorgan chase jpmn to kick off the quarterly reporting period for us companies here is the us premarket snapshot for thursdays live markets posts prior to 0900 est1400 gmt  click here read more