Key Developments - International
Kuroda Confirmation Flags More Stimulus Even As Japan Upgrades Economic View: The upper house of Japan's Parliament endorsed Haruhiko Kuroda as the governor of the Bank of Japan, clearing the way for the long-term central bank critic to officially take charge of the top post. His confirmation has cemented expectations that the central bank will soon embark on aggressive monetary easing to beat deflation. The markets are betting on a move as early as next month. Kuroda holds the view that the policy easing conducted by the BoJ has not been enough to achieve the 2 percent inflation target. The new leadership is in favor of further monetary easing and purchase of longer term bonds to address part of the current economic woes.

EU Leaders Push For Pro-Growth, Pro-Jobs Policies At Summit: European Union leaders on late-Thursday called for strong measures to address the issues of worsening economic and labor market situation at the EU summit in Brussels, while thousands staged anti-austerity protests at the Belgian capital. The leaders closely analyzed the region's efforts to balance austerity, growth and employment. There were more calls for pro-growth policies, especially from France and Italy. At the summit, there was an unusual urgency among leaders to address the unemployment problem, particularly among youth, as they feared it could lead to serious social unrest.

U. S. Producer Prices Rise 0.7% In February Amid Jump In Energy Prices: With energy prices showing a substantial increase in the month of February, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that U. S. producer prices rose by slightly more than anticipated during the month. The Labor Department said its producer price index rose by 0.7 percent in February after edging up by 0.2 percent in January. Economists had expected producer prices to increase by 0.6 percent. The slightly bigger than expected increase in producer prices in February was largely due to a 3.0 percent jump in energy prices, which followed a 0.4 percent drop in the previous month.

U. S. Weekly Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Drop To 332,000: In the latest positive sign for the U. S. labor market, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that first-time claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly decreased in the week ended March 9th. The report showed that initial jobless claims fell to 332,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 342,000. The drop came as a surprise to economists, who had expected jobless claims to rise to 350,000 from the 340,000 originally reported for the previous week.

U. S. Business Inventories Rise More Than Expected In January: Business inventories in the U. S. increased by much more than economists had expected in the month of January, the Commerce Department revealed in a report on Wednesday, although the report also showed a drop in business sales. The report showed that business inventories rose by 1.0 percent in January following a revised 0.3 percent increase in December. Economists had expected inventories to increase by 0.5 percent compared to the 0.1 percent growth originally reported for the previous month.