bald eagle hawk
Flickr / Tambako the Jaguar
Stocks ended the first quarter at an all-time high.
First the scoreboard:
Dow: 14,574, +48.6 pts, +0.3 percent

S&P 500: 1,568, +6.0 pts, +0.3 percent

NASDAQ: 3,267, +11.0 pts, +0.3 percent
And now the top stories:

  • Today's stock market rally came in the face of four pieces of disappointing economic data.

  • The final reading of Q4 GDP growth came in at +0.4 percent, which was below expectations for +0.5 percent.

  • Initial jobless claims jumped to 357k, which was higher than the 340k economists were expecting.

  • The Chicago PMI fell to 52.4 from 56.8 a month ago.  Economists were looking for a reading of 56.5.

  • Rounding out the economic reports was the Kansas City Fed Manufacturing index, which improved to just -5 from last month's reading of -10. Economists were looking for -3.