A Few of Our Favorite Things - 2026-04-06

Thanks to lingering effects of the government shutdown, two of our most important mid-frequency data-sets are only now updating for February. Good news and bad news. Orders for non-defense cap-goods (ex-aircraft) makes a new all-time high. But housing transaction volumes fall sharply in both new and existing homes. Oh, and according to our "Google Trends" indicator, there may be a an indicator of rising fearfulness thanks to the Iran conflict -- web searches for "Jesus Christ" are the most in eight years.