The Economic Week in Review

Whelp, it's Friday Again, and that means it's time for the weekly recap, and look ahead for next week. This week wasn't all that great. Economic data sort of put things into perspective. The economy is still in terrible shape, but things do look like they are improving somewhat. People who lost there jobs in the last few months are not finding new work, even though the number of newly unemployed people filing claims are shrinking. I think we will see an Unemployment rate of 10% by Late July or early August. One of the problems complicating matters for the unemployed is that most companies are not offering any type of compensation plan, leaving the unemployed extremely vulnerable The housing data also was not all that great. Foreclosures continue to rise, driving the market values down dramatically in many locations across the country.

So, what can we expect next week? There will certainly be some interesting data put out. Below is a list of the economic data to be released next week along with the date and time:

- May 26 9:00 AM S&P/CaseShiller Home Price Index
- May 26 10:00 AM Consumer Confidence
- May 27 10:00 AM Existing Home Sales
- May 27 10:30 AM Crude Inventories
- May 28 8:30 AM Durable Goods Orders
- May 28 8:30 AM Durables, Ex-Transport
- May 28 8:30 AM Initial Claims
- May 28 10:00 AM New Home Sales
- May 28 11:00 AM Crude Inventories
- May 29 8:30 AM GDP - Prelim. Q1
- May 29 8:30 AM GDP Deflator Q1
- May 29 9:45 AM Chicago PMI May
- May 29 9:55 AM Mich Sentiment-Rev

I will be paying close attention on the 29th to see what the Preliminary GDP numbers look like. Those numbers could really move the markets in one direction or the other. As for Stock's Earnings reports, there are not too many major companies reporting next week. We are sort of in the dead season in terms of earnings.