by Calculated Risk on 3/31/2014 09:16:00 PM

Oh no, not April 1st! From the NY Times: Beware the April Fools’ Jokes Coming From Madison Avenue

In the last three or four years, the ranks of pranksters seem to have grown, partly because of the ability of social media to rapidly communicate and amplify messages. For instance, a trick pulled off for April Fools’ Day last year by FreshDirect — the introduction of a blueberry and banana hybrid called a “bluenana” — was “a hit with our customers, garnering lots of buzz across social media,” said Jodi Kahn, chief consumer officer at FreshDirect.
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Time will tell whether any of the jokes for 2014 will rank among the funniest — and most successful in fooling consumers — of previous April Fools’ Days. Among those was a “left-handed” Whopper from Burger King in 1998 and an announcement in 1996 that Taco Bell had bought the Liberty Bell and renamed it the Taco Liberty Bell.

Tuesday:
• Early: Reis Q1 2014 Office Survey of rents and vacancy rates.

• All day: Light vehicle sales for March. The consensus is for light vehicle sales to increase to 15.8 million SAAR in March (Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate) from 15.3 million SAAR in February.

• At 9:00 AM ET, the Markit US PMI Manufacturing Index for March.

• At 10:00 AM, the ISM Manufacturing Index for March. The consensus is for an increase to 54.0 from 53.2 in February.

• Also at 10:00 AM, Construction Spending for February. The consensus is for a 0.1% increase in construction spending.