Quick Overview

• The Conference Board's index of U.S. leading indicators was down 0.2% in February, to 139.0.
  

• With the steady trend of rising core inflation in Japan "here to stay," it's not too early for Japan to change its ultra-loose monetary policy stance, a Bank of Japan official said on Monday.
  

• German producer-price inflation speeded up 5.9% in February -- the fastest pace in almost 24 years.
  

• The U.K. posted a budget shortfall of 2.27 billion pounds
  

• Statistics Canada said that foreign buys of Canadian securities totaled C$3.0 billion in January while Canadians bought C$3.7 billion in foreign securities.