Volatility took a holiday yesterday with neither stocks nor bonds making any headway in either direction. The Dow did have a relatively wide trading range of approximately 160 points, but trading was dull and mostly a slow drift down from early highs.

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Bond prices settled for small gains based on a rally in German bonds. After the first three economic releases Thursday morning, we might not see much market movement today, either.

Weekly jobless claims fell slightly to 260,000. The Producer Price Index was unchanged, and the core rate rose 0.1%. Both of these were expected.

The third release, retail sales, was the one traders were waiting for, and it came out weaker than expected. The headline number fell by 0.3% versus expectations of a flat reading. The more important ex-food and autos component fell by 0.1% versus expectations of a 0.3% gain.

Read more about Dow futures, movement in the bond market, and a holiday for volatility.

Dwight Johnston is the chief economist of the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues and president of Dwight Johnston Economics. He is the author of a popular commentary site and is a frequent speaker at credit union board planning sessions and industry conferences.