Financial Options

Tuesday will be the big day this week with July housing starts, the July Producer Price Index (PPI) and the August State Street Index all due. The only indicator due out Monday is the Housing Market Index, which will be overshadowed by the actual housing starts number on Tuesday. For housing to find its bottom, and the economy to regain full steam, these numbers still have further to fall to alleviate the supply glut.

With the CPI (Consumer Price Index) figures released Thursday showing fairly strong inflation at the retail level, the PPI figure may be the most important stat of the week.

For stock and bond market investors, the State Street Index is important, but the larger macro indicators are more likely to move the market on the day.

Wednesday the only major monthly indicators are the weekly mortgage and oil reports. That oil report bears watching after the market essentially shrugged off a large drop in inventories in last week's report.

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Thursday wraps up the week with the usual weekly reports on money supply and jobless claims and the Conference Board's monthly Leading Indicators. For those interest in the technicality of whether we will actually have a recession – a technicality that could eventually bear heavily on investor confidence and the rebound to full growth – the lagging indicators are also worth a look. The last several months the picture from the lagging indicators, along with revisions of leading and coincident indicators, has shown that current month leading and coincident indicators are underestimating growth.

*See more information on the Financial Roadmap series here. Earnings reports are companies of interest, NOT recommendations.