1. Bring on more winter storms!

The worse the weather gets, the more relieved the stock market seems to be that every piece of disappointing news can be dismissed as a weatherrelated miss. There was no fear of Mother Nature last week. The major indices all gained between 2.3% and 2.9% in a rally that left short sellers in the dust. The S&P 500 is now down just 0.5% year-to-date after being down 3.6% at the start of the month.} 2. That runs counter to the 3.1% rally in the Nikkei on Tuesday, which followed none other than an announcement from the Bank of Japan that it will be extending three special loan programs by one year. Coincidentally, it was also reported that Japan's fourth quarter GDP increased at a disappointing annualized rate of 1.0% (2.8% forecast). 3. Separately, the Empire Manufacturing Survey revealed a positive print of 4.5 for February. The good news is that a reading above zero still connotes an expansion in manufacturing activity in the snow-plagued New York Fed region. The bad news -- or good news it seems in the market's eyes -- is that the February reading is down from 12.5 in January.

BLOOMBERG

4. Weaker economic numbers have been shrugged off, Eric Green, director of research and fund manager at Penn Capital Management, said by phone. The Philadelphia-based firm oversees about $7 billion. It seems like the consensus view is that weather is a huge issue in the numbers. The outlook looks pretty benign right now. We can probably reach new highs in the near term in the equity markets. 5. Equities rose for the week as Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen pledged to maintain her predecessors policies by scaling back stimulus in measured steps. Economic growth has strengthened and there is broad improvement in the labor market, she said, adding that only a notable change in the outlook for the economy would prompt the central bank to slow the pace of tapering.

6. Investors have dismissed weaker-than-forecast economic data including Januarys payrolls over the past two weeks, helping stocks recover from their worst start of a year since 2010. 7. While the Fed has started slowing the pace of its bond buying, the Bank of Japan boosted lending programs today. The Peoples Bank of China sold repurchase contracts for the first time since June, draining funds from the banking system.

8. It seems as if central banks are driving markets again in the short run, Jean-Paul Jeckelmann, who helps manage $1.5 billion in equities as chief investment officer of Banque Bonhote & Cie. in Neuchatel, Switzerland, said in an interview. On one side, the BOJ increased the size of lending facilities, on the other the PBOC drained liquidity from the money markets. The story around central banks is far from over.

TREASURIES 9. Treasuries gained as a report showed manufacturing growth slowed more than forecast in February in the New York region, adding to bets the U.S. economic recovery is faltering. 10. Yields on U.S. 10-year notes fell from almost the highest this month. Treasuries rose earlier with European government bonds as data showed German investor confidence declined for a second month in February. The Federal Reserve will release minutes tomorrow of its January meeting, when it decided to cut bond-buying a second time. Investors outside the U.S. increased holdings of Treasuries in December the most since 2011. 11. This is consistent with the mixed economic data weve been receiving, Ian Lyngen, a government-bond strategist at CRT Capital Group LLC in Stamford, Connecticut, said of the U.S. data. While theres no clear indication its weather-related, some of the incoming data have been impacted by the weather. Uncertainty remains high. 12. Ten-year note yields touched 3.05 percent on Jan. 2, the highest level since July 2011, and reached a three-month low of 2.56 percent on Feb. 3. 13. Youre probably range-bound until people determine if theres an economic slowdown, said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist in New York at BTIG LLC. 14. Storms in the U.S. hurt housing, manufacturing and consumption indicators, according to a Feb. 14 report by Morgan Stanley, one of the 22 primary dealers that trade directly with the Fed. Second-quarter economic growth may increase to 4 percent from 1 percent in the first, according to the report. 15. Investors should underweight duration, Matthew Hornbach, Morgan Stanleys New York-based head of global interest-rate strategy, said in a presentation the company placed on its website. Duration measures a bonds sensitivity to changes in yield. An underweight position means that a fund holds fewer of the securities than recommended by the benchmark it uses to track performance.

YEN 16. The yen slid to the weakest this month against the dollar and the euro after the Bank of Japan boosted its lending programs and said it will maintain monetary easing to stamp out deflation. 17. Theres scope for dollar-yen to head higher on any dovish news from the Bank of Japan, said Michael Sneyd, a currency strategist at BNP Paribas SA in London. Long dollar-yen is one trade we like, he said, referring to a bet that the U.S. currency will appreciate. 18. Japans gross domestic product grew at an annualized 1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, down from 1.1 percent in the previous three months, the Cabinet office said yesterday, missing analysts forecasts and boosting speculation for more central bank easing. 19. Youre likely to see easier monetary policy out of the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan at a time when the marginal change at the Fed is actually toward less accommodation, Russ Koesterich, global chief investment strategist at New York-based BlackRock Inc., which manages $4.3 trillion, said from Sydney. That should support a stronger dollar versus the euro and the yen.

LIBRA 20. The pound dropped the most in two weeks against the euro after U.K. inflation slowed below the Bank of Englands target in January for the first time in more than four years. 21. Sterling fell a second day versus the 18-nation currency as the data backed the case for the central bank to keep interest rates at a record low. Short-sterling futures rose as traders cut bets on higher interbank borrowing costs. U.K. government bonds gained, pushing 10year yields to the lowest level in a week. Governor Mark Carney, in last weeks Inflation Report, replaced an unemployment threshold with a range of indicators as the means of assessing when he may raise interest rates.

GOLD 22. Gold retreated from the highest price in more than three months in London on speculation the metals advance may deter physical purchases. Silver fell, ending the longest run of gains since at least 1968.

23. Bullion rose 9.2 percent this year, rebounding from the biggest annual drop since 1981, as reports showed that the U.S. economy wasnt growing as fast as forecast and as lower prices spurred demand, particularly in China. The U.S. Mint sold 13,000 ounces of American Eagle gold coins so far in February, compared with 91,500 ounces for all of January, mint data show. 24. The strength is not going to last, said Dominic Schnider, head of commodities research at UBS AGs wealth-management unit in Singapore, citing prospects for less U.S. stimulus, a stronger dollar and restrained inflation. Consumers in China may pull back a little bit from gold purchases amid higher prices, he said.

25. Volatilidad enmercados emergentes, exportaciones, us banking system exposure