Sunday, December 17, 2006

Coming Up This Week

Housing Starts and Producer Prices come out on Tuesday. The housing starts number is important. Builders have been slowing their building pace in response to a large inventory build-up.

We get the final 3Q GDP, Leading Economic Indicators and and the Philly Fed on Thursday. The ISM manufacturing numbers dropped below 50 last time, so the Philly Fed number will let is get some confirmation or not of that particular number. Personally, I've never been a big fan of the LEI numbers.

Durable Goods, personal income and consumer sentiment come out on Friday.

I would expect the market to really slow down come Thursday about noon, as traders look to get an early start on the Christmas break.

We'll also have to see if the markets decide to continue their rally, or if traders start to book and lock-in year-end profits.