Hi Folks.

Here is the forecast for this week.

MONDAY: It's Columbus Day, so the banks are closed, but the Markets are still open and busy. There just isn't any news (economic) to move price around. But there are 3 Fed clowns jabbering at 9:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m. and 5 p.m. As stated previously, these are untradeable compared to specific economic numbers, so don't even try. Maybe take the day off as well.

TUESDAY: Not much better than Monday in terms of news. Empire State Manufacturing Index at 8:30, which normally does nothing, but given the complete lack of numbers so far this week might give price a little nudge, especially if the number comes in way off from expectations. After that is more Fed Speak at 11:30 and 1:00. So don't expect a lot from today barring some unexpected event.

WEDNESDAY: Import prices drops at 8:30, typically a non-event from a price action standpoint, but casting my eye at the rest of the calendar, I cannot help but notice there is nothing else scheduled for the rest of the day. So all our hopes and dreams are riding on Import Prices m/m. This is making me regret getting my internet connection back over the weekend. 3rd lousy news day in a row.

THURSDAY: Finally! We have Retail Sales (Core and Overall), Philly Fed Manufacturing Index, and Unemployment Claims, all at 8:30 a.m. From famine to feast, well, sort of. Retail Sales is the ugly stepsister of the Big 3 numbers (the other two being CPI and PPI) which all hit around the same time. the Fed is still keeping an eye on Unemployment, although there is still a lot of semi-informed chatter about the big NFP number that hit on Oct. 1st throwing a wrench into the plans the Fed had for future cuts in November and December, so maybe this number isn't going to have the sort of impact the last few have ginned up, and Philly Fed? Well, Philly Fed is the best of the three Manufacturing Index numbers, but it hasn't posted anything worth trading in a while (nor have the other two), so in a normal week I would say this 8:30 lineup may not be all that impressive. But we just went through 3 straight days of all but non-existent news, so this is the first set of real numbers traders have to trade on, so I still think we might see some decent price action finally (both at 8:30 when the numbers drop and at 9:30 when the markets open). There are a bunch of other numbers coming out later in the morning, but none of them are a big deal at any time (Cap Utilization and Industrial Production at 9:15; Business Inventories and the NAHB Housing Market Index at 10:00, Nat Gas at 10:30, Crude Oil at 11:00, the Federal Budget Imbalance, which is listed as tentative, and the TIC Long Term Purchases at 4:00). So the 8:30 lineup will likely set the tone for the remainder of the day.

FRIDAY: Back to our regularly scheduled lineup of lousy news reports. Building Permits and Housing Starts at 8:30, followed by Fed Chatter at 12:10 and a Treasury Currency Report listed as tentative. So again, a lack of any data designed to move prices around. So be careful if you decide to trade any real money.

Back next week hopefully with a better lineup of reports.

Jeff