March ISM at consensus, inflation as expected.

ISM came in at consensus, but once again you miss the big picture if you don't take a look beyond the headlines. Prices paid on the last ISM (which was an increase from the previous report) was 82, consensus for this report was 82.9, actual print came in at 85!

New orders declined about a point to 63.3 and as you might expect, construction spending dropped (think LEN short).  Employment did grow at a decent pace, but as margins continue to contract, lay-offs are usually imminent.

Prices Paid has been trending up steadily since 2008, accelerating in 2009 (Bernanke's Quantitative Inflation) and now prices paid are only about 5 points off multi year highs, the chart I saw only went back to 2005 so it could be even longer.