Economic Calendar

Economic Calendar This week will be busy from start to finish... but the biggest news will hit on Friday! Right away Monday morning we’ll see the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Index, which is the Fed's favorite gauge of inflation. And as stated above, inflation is the archenemy of Bonds - which means it’s also bad for home loan rates. We’ll also see a new report Monday morning on Pending Home Sales, which comes after last week’s disappointing reports on Existing Home Sales and New Home Sales. This week, we’ll gain new insight on consumers - with the Personal Spending and Personal Income reports on Monday as well as the Consumer Confidence report on Tuesday. Manufacturing will also be in the news with Thursday’s release of the Chicago PMI, which reports on manufacturing in Chicago and is a good indicator of overall economic activity. But the big news to watch this week relates to employment, which kicks off Wednesday with the ADP National Employment Report on non-farm private employment. Next up is another round of Initial Jobless Claims on Thursday. Last week’s report indicated that Jobless Claims are improving on a weekly basis, but at a snail's pace and not enough to make a meaningful dent in our stubbornly high unemployment rate. Finally, the busy week culminates with the highly anticipated Jobs Report on Friday. This report features new data regarding job growth and the unemployment rate - needless to say, this report can be a big market mover! Remember: Weak economic news normally causes money to flow out of Stocks and into Bonds, helping Bonds and home loan rates improve, while strong economic news normally has the opposite result.