Retail sales and inflation took a step backward in March, as dour consumer demand hurt the former and suppressed energy prices stalled the latter.

Hundreds of economic and stock-market indicators exist, but many won’t be relevant – even if you could decipher them.  Here are a few stock market indicators that are both reliable and readable to everyday investors.

Facing near extinction at the hands of Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) and increasingly popular pay-per-view movies, Blockbuster Inc. (BBI) announced that it would team with on-demand television powerhouse Tivo Inc. (TIVO) to sell and rent movies via digital video recorders (DVRs).

Suncor Energy Inc. (SU) said it will buy rival Petro-Canada (PCZ) for $14.9 billion (C$18.43 billion) in a deal that will create Canadia’s largest energy company, with a refining capacity of 433,000 barrels per day.

Bernie Madoff’s guilty plea to a decades-long $50 billion-plus Ponzi scheme pretty much guarantees the 70-year-old will have his likeness immortalized on the Mt. Rushmore of scammers.

The consumer price index (CPI) moved 0.4% in February, a little higher than expected and a sign that consumers are dipping their feet back into the water – slowly.

A pair of crucial economic indices seesawed in February, helping some analysts to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Like a vanquished enemy, inflation has been out of sight and out of mind. But old enemies can resurrect themselves.  And that’s just what’s going to happen with inflation, two fixed-income experts say.

The World Bank estimates that the global economy will likely shrink for the first time since World War II – at least five percentage points below potential – and emerging markets will suffer the hardest hits with severe long-term implications.