Leak Rumors Adding Turmoil to Markets Follow Step to Guard Data More Closely
WASHINGTON -- The leak rumors that helped send stock and bond prices plunging are the latest in a series riling the markets recently, only months after the Commerce Department tightened its control over sensitive data.</br></br>Yesterday's turmoil came partly in response to some bond and financial futures markets trading based on rumored leaks of information that the Commerce Department's retail sales report would show a 2.5% increase for August and that the Labor Department's producer price index for August would register a 0.5% rise. If true, the figures, particularly the retail sales number, would suggest that the economy is growing more briskly than many forecasters expected.</br></br>Traders pay close attention to these economic reports, and when they differ from what was expected it can lead to turmoil in the market.</br></br>While leak rumors aren't unusual, their pace seems to have stepped up in the wake of two recent instances when rumors proved to be on target. Traders, asserting they had received leaked figures, accurately predicted last month that the Commerce Department's revised figures for second-quarter gross national product would show a 0.6% rise at an inflation-adjusted annual rate and that the agency's index of leading indicators would jump 1.1% for July.</br></br>Both reports differed significantly from market expectations.