Hi Folks.

Here is this week's economic forecast:

MONDAY: Zip. Zilch. Nada. Nothing.

TUESDAY: We start with Goods Trade Imbalance and Preliminary Wholesale Inventories numbers at 8:30 a.m. Neither report has a history of doing anything to price action so feel free to ignore. At 9:00 we have the S&P Composite Housing Price Index year over year number, along with the monthly Housing Price Index number. Just like at 8:30, these numbers have little or no chance of moving price around much, if at all. Another safe pass. At 10:00 a.m., however, we have both the JOLTS Job Openings and the Conference Board Consumer Confidence numbers. Jolts has actually been responsible for price moving around some when it has been a stand alone report, and being paired up with the Consumer Confidence number, it will likely make something happen today. How much and for how long will require a bigger crystal ball than I have access to, but be ready to do some actual trading at 10 a.m. on Tuesday of this week.

WEDNESDAY: At 8:15 we get the monthly ADP Non Farm Payroll number, which likely won't do a lot to move price around but it will give us a slight peek at what to expect on Friday with the NFP. At 8:30 we have a pair of Advance GDP numbers, and these will rock the markets some, particularly if the number misses the expectation either way. At 10 we have another housing number, the Pending Home Sales month over month, and this one can be safely ignored. Crude Oil at 10:30.

THURSDAY: We start the day early at 7:30 with the Challenger Job cuts. No one is around to trade at 7:30 as London and the EU are off at lunch and the US traders are still sitting in traffic on their way in to their jobs. So don't expect much from this one. At 8:30 we have a bunch of reports, but the biggies are First Time Unemployment Claims and the Core PCE Price Index. The Fed watches both of these numbers closely, so any sort of deviation from expectation, particularly a larger PCE number than expected, will roil the markets. 9:45 is Chicago PMI (a hard pass) and at 10:30 Nat Gas. But it's all about the 8:30 numbers this morning.

FRIDAY: We start the morning with the NFP and related numbers at 8:30. The last big number before the Presidential election, and given the not exactly unfounded fear that the NFP is being manipulated, expect a good showing this month. Whether the Street bites and uses that number to run Index prices up is anyone's guess (and I guess probably no, they won't) but we still need to watch and see how the market treats today's job numbers. At 9:45 we have Manufacturing PMI (pass) and at 10 we have ISM Manufacturing PMI and Prices, along with Construction Spending. No one cares about Construction Spending, but the ISM numbers will likely make some noise, especially if the NFP doesn't do enough to make prices spike one or both ways a couple of times. So if the NFP ends up being a dud, the ISM PMI may end up saving the day for everyone.

See you next week.

Jeff