Well, the big bad news hit Wednesday with the Federal Reserve raising its overnight interest rate by half a percentage point, a move not seen in 22 years, and of course, that was followed by the Dow dropping over 1,000 points yesterday. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced at the beginning of this week that the number of job openings rose to a new record high of 11.5 million in March, an increase of 200,000 over the 11.3 million openings posted in February. At the same time, the number of workers voluntarily leaving their jobs also reached a new monthly high of 4.5 million in March. And against that backdrop, the Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Advisers (BEA) reported that consumer spending increase 1.1 percent in that same month of March, but much of that gain was eaten up by inflation. Adjusting for rising prices, spending rose by a modest 0.2 percent. And finally, there’s new data from the University of Michigan Survey of Consumers for April showing that despite inflation and ongoing supply chain challenges, consumer sentiment readings jumped almost 6 points to 65.2. The surge however was concentrated in future expectations with consumers believing rosier economic conditions lie ahead. Notwithstanding the gains, the indicator is still below January 2022 levels.