Economic reports this week continue to mislead investors who hope “bad news remains good” for equity markets.

The CPI was up to 0.2% vs expected 0.1% & prior -0.2%. Was this good or bad? Gains were almost exclusively in home rental prices and healthcare. The former isn’t good if you’re the one paying and so too is the latter since most of this was Obamacare cost increases.

Industrial Production fell once again to -0.02% vs o.1% expected & prior unchanged at -0.2%.

Housing Market Index fell to 62 vs 64 expected & prior 65. Homebuilders aren’t pleased.

The Red Book which monitors retailers was reported once again as “soft”.

The only thing positive for the ZIRP addicted bulls was the Fed won’t raise interest rates come December since they’re data dependent. But, do you trust them once again saying the economy is “solid”.

Reuters published a story today outlining how stock buybacks have hurt companies in the long-run by cannibalizing this activity. We’ve been saying this for a long time.

Stocks overall were mostly flat on the day but commodity markets (oil, gold and etc) were crushed once again. It’s clear there’s an amazing disconnect between today’s PPI report and commodity prices.

Market sectors moving higher included: Biotech (IBB), Russia (RSX), Hedged Japan (DXJ), Australia (EWA) and little else.

Market sectors moving lower included: Energy (XLE), Retail (XRT), India (EPI), Brazil (EWZ), South Korea (EWY), China (FXI), Emerging Markets (EEM), Asia ex-Japan (AAXJ), Gold, (GLD), Gold Stocks (GXG), Euro (FXE), Silver (SLV), Platinum (PPLT), Base Metals (DBB), Commodity Tracking ETF (DBC) and Crude Oil (USO).

The top ETF daily market movers by percentage change in volume whether rising or falling is available daily.

Volume was about average for the period while breadth per the WSJ was mostly negative.