A deluge of U.S. economic data hit Thursday morning, offering a confusing blend of soft retail sales, lukewarm hiring, and producer prices that fell hard - unless you zoom out. Markets shrugged, mostly, except where the numbers turned uncomfortably specific: core retail sales, the GDP-sensitive kind, declined when they were supposed to rise. Donald Trump offered something far more straightforward - math-defying mega-deals and another round of headline theatre.
