Market Monday: The Week Ahead

By Thomas N. Bulkowski
28 December 2009 @ 12:38 am EDT

Monday 12/28/2009. Market Monday: The Week Ahead

A Brief Look Back

Picture of a poppy from my back yard.

The following are economic news or events that moved the markets last week. The numbers refer to the close-to-close move in the Dow industrials.

Monday: Up 85.25 points. Tuesday: Up 50.79 points. GDP came in lower than expected, but existing home sales were better. Wednesday: Up 1.51 points. Personal spending and income both were below expectations and new home sales were soft as well. Crude inventories dropped. Thursday: Up 53.66 points. Initial and continuing jobless claims were better than expected. Soft auto sales hurt durable good order numbers. Friday: Holiday or other weird event!

For the week...

The Dow industrials were up 191.21 points or 1.9%. The Nasdaq composite was up 74 points or 3.3%. The S&P 500 index was up 24.01 points or 2.2%.

Economic Reports

The following information is derived from yahoo!finance and times are local to the east coast. The "Dow Moved" column is the close-to-close price change of the Dow industrials on the release day from the prior trading day, the last time the report came out.

Report	Time	A-F Rating	Dow Moved	Description
Consumer confidence	10:00 T	B-	-17	Surveys 5,000 households for trends.
Chicago purchasing managers index	9:45 W	B	+35	Monitors regional manufacturing activity.
Crude inventories	10:30 W	?	+2	My guess: Measures oil inventory.
Initial jobless claims	8:30 Th	C+	+54	Counts people filing for state unemployment benefits.

The markets will be closed on Friday in celebration of hangovers.

Options Expiration

No options expire this week.

Forex Trader Library

Receive over 15 hours (8 CD's) of our best Forex trading education in one package! Containing the newest Advanced Forex CD, this education pack focuses on exactly what you need to know to become a successful Forex Trader.