Planning Briefs

With the risk of a banking crisis roiling investors, the latest developments included signs that the crisis would be contained, and the chance of a contagion and systemic threat to the U.S. economy subsided.  Retail sales data from the U.S. Census Bureau showed the economy cooled in February. Estimated retail and food services sales for February 2023, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were $697.9 billion, down 0.4% from January. The Producer Price Index for Final Demand, a monthly measure of inflation -- prices paid at the wholesale level by suppliers – decreased 0.1 percent in February, seasonally adjusted,...