Financial Options

Each of the upcoming financial items with the exception of Treasury auctions and announcements will be linked in this post as they become available. Housing market indicators will be featured on RealNews under the Housing Market category. Job market indicators wil be featured at Jobs Calling under the Job Market category. International indicators will be featured at Growing Global under the Economic Indicators category. General US economic indicators will be featured on this site, Financial Options, under Economic Indicators category.

The earnings releases listed are companies I've chosen because of their industries, because of market capitalization (the size of the company), because they have local plants in my area or for various other reasons of general interest. Please do not take these as a “recommendation” of any sort. That I list them here simply means that I think the results may be interesting for any number of reason - I may occasionally even choose companies where I expect negative results.

Monday: No economic indicators are scheduled for release Monday.

Monday Treasury Schedule: 11 AM Eastern 4-Week T-Bill Announcement, 2-Year Note Announcement, 5-Year Note Announcement; 1 PM Eastern 3-Month T-Bill Auction, 6-Month T-Bill Auction

Monday Earnings: American Express [Ticker: AXP ; Industry: Credit Services ], Chubb [Ticker: CB ; Industry: Property & Casualty Insurance ] Chubb provides, among other things, property insurance for luxury homes.

Tuesday: The National Association of Realtors will release data on existing home sales for March, the Conference Board is scheduled to issue its consumer confidence index for April and the Bank of Canada will make a monetary policy / interest rate announcement.

Tuesday Treasury Schedule: 1 PM Eastern 4-Week T-Bill Auction, 5-Year TIPS Auction [Treasury Inflation Protected Securities]

Tuesday Earnings: Amazon [Ticker: AMZN ; Industry: Internet Software & Services ], Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation [Ticker: BNI ; Industry: Railroads ] I just have a thing for trains.

Wednesday: Housing market watchers will get the Commerce Department's monthly release of New Home Sales for March and the Mortgage Bankers Associations weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, which includes information on mortgage interest rates as well as the number of new mortgage applications for purchase and refinance. The Commerce Department will release data on Durable Goods Orders for March and the Federal Reserve will release its Beige Book, which is an economic overview of the United States by Federal Reserve region. Also Wednesday, the weekly petroleum status report and This Week in Petroleum from the Energy Information Administration will bear watching with the price of crude oil at an all time record and very near the “inflation adjusted” record of roughly $80/barrel.

Wednesday Treasury Schedule: 1 PM Eastern 2-year Note Auction

Wednesday Earnings: Anheuser Busch Companies [Ticker: BUD ; Industry: Beverages - Brewers ] This is a Missouri company and the largest brewer in the United States. Diamond Offshore Drilling [Ticker: DO ; Industry: Oil & Gas Drilling & Exploration ] I'm interested to see how oil prices are affecting oil drilling and exploration, if at all.

Thursday: Thursday is job market day this week with the Weekly Jobless Claims report from the Employment and Training Administration and the Help Wanted Ad Index from the Conference Board, which measures the number of new employment ads in 51 major newspapers nationwide.

Thursday Treasury Schedule: 11 AM Eastern 3-Month T-Bill Announcement, 6-Month Bill Announcement; 1 PM Eastern 5-Year Note Auction

Thursday Earnings: Black and Decker [Ticker: BDK ; Industry: Small Tools & Accessories ], Countrywide Financial Corp [Ticker: CFC ; Industry: Mortgage Investment ] As the largest mortgage originator in the United States, Countrywide should be one of the first companies to show signs of any systemic problems in the housing market whether from lower loan volume or increased defaults.

Friday: Friday we'll get some first quarter compilations, with the first quarter Employment Cost Index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Advance Gross Domestic Product figures from the Commerce Department. The University of Michigan Consumer Survey Center will release its April Consumer Sentiment numbers.,

Friday Treasury Schedule: None.

Friday Earnings: Avon Products Inc [Ticker: AVP ; Industry: Personal Products ] Cosmetics companies are often touted as good investments for troubled times and Avon's business model makes it doubly so. Interesting to see how Avon performs in not so troubled economic times. Republic Services Inc [Ticker: RSG ; Industry: Waste Management ]

earnings,Treasuries,economic indicators