Financial Options

The week opens up with two days of news from the industrial economy and then heads into three days of employment data leading up to Friday morning's Labor Department Employment Situation Report. Friday will be a big day overall with news from housing and credit markets as well as the jobs report.

Monday the Institute for Supply Management releases its Manufacturing Report on Business, then Tuesday the Commerce Department releases Factory Order data and the major automakers release auto sales data.

Wednesday, the Treasury Department will make 10-year Treasury Note and 30-year Treasury Bond announcements and these could be big issues with the need to finance an expanding deficit and the first round of the $700 billion bank bailout. Wednesday also starts the employment data countdown to the Friday jobs report with ADP's National Employment Report and Challenger's report on layoffs.

Thursday is more jobs data, with the Monster Employment Index and the weekly Jobless Claims, plus a glimpse into retail with chain stores releasing sales data. Look for moves in credit and Forex markets with announcements from the Bank of England and European Central Bank, with interest rate drops likely.

Friday it will be all about the Employment Situation at the market open and will stay that way for about an hour and a half. Then the National Association of Realtors will release its Pending Home Sales Index for September. We already know that closed home sales rose in September, despite a supposed credit crunch, so the next big hurdle for the housing market is how new sales contracts fared as consumers were hit by apocalyptic financial reporting. The day will close out with the Fed reporting on September consumer credit at 3 PM: Did consumer credit dry up in September at the height of the credit crisis?

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