The coming week brings a start to the New Year and trading is expected to return to normal after a couple of very quiet weeks. Next week is capped by the Friday employment data and trading sources suspect it will show recovery and set equities on an upward path for the year. Economists are looking for December US Payrolls to post about +140,000 and the unemployment rate is expected to fall back to 9.7%.
The Fed buys Treasuries on each of the business days of the week, including TIPS (Treasury Inflation Protected Securities) on Tuesday. The buying should average $25 billion.
Rising manufacturing data and a better labour market should be featured in the week's data. The ISM manufacturing index is due Monday and is expected to rise slightly to a reading of 56.8 in December, based on early forecasts.
Tuesday includes the minutes of the latest FOMC Meeting, while the non-manufacturing ISM index is due on Wednesday, along with the weekly Crude Oil Stocks data.
Thursday’s data includes the weekly Jobless Claims as well as the weekly EIA Natural Gas Stocks as market activity starts to pick up as traders return from their holidays.
Then on Friday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies at the Senate Budget Committee. This is not...read more
