Financial Options

The upcoming week could be a volatile one, especially in Forex markets. The week starts with the Conference Board's report on euro zone Leading Indicators. With the European Central Bank's reluctance to match other central bank's levels of easing, this is not likely to inspire confidence in the euro, but any boost this gives to the dollar is likely to be short lived. The Treasury Department is making announcements or holding auctions for 2-year, 3-year, 5-year, 7-year and 10-year Treasury notes, 52-week T-bills and 30-year Treasury bonds this week, in addition to the normal T-bill auctions and topping it all off with the quarterly refunding announcement. Bottom line: the markets are going to get hit with solid numbers on hundreds of billions of dollars in Treasury borrowing. Top all that off with an announcement Wednesday from the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee and Wednesday is likely to see lots of action in many markets.

Friday will be another very interesting day with three major numbers due out in the industrial arena: motor vehicle sales for April, factory orders for March and the ISM Manufacturing Report on Business and Purchasing Managers Index. With the consensus estimates calling for further improvements in car sales and the PMI, the risk is slanted slightly to the downside. This is not a day for short term bets, but smart investors will definitely take note of the trend in manufacturing as they make their decisions the following week.

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