Welcome to the Investors Trading Academy economic calendar of the week. Each week our news analysts review the upcoming economic events that you should be monitoring. There is a relatively light economic calendar this week looking ahead, the Fed’s stance on interest rates and heightened concerns of the global economy hurting the U.S. economic recovery has created some strong positive sentiment in the market, at least in the short term.
Although U.S. economic data will be limited this week some of reports that could create some volatility in the marketplace include manufacturing data, including durable goods numbers for August, home sales data for August and the final second-quarter U.S. gross domestic product report.
The coming week starts off with some Greek fun and games, but the bailout is not yet under threat so the impact is likely to be minimal.
PMIs next week will be very interesting, while US data is still the driving force behind the performance of the US dollar. Some brave souls are calling for a move in October now, but this looks unlikely. But with the economic outlook not particularly strong stock markets are likely to struggle.
The focus is on US housing data over the week while the results of the Greek election will filter through on Monday. In the US, the week starts off on with data on existing home sales. Economists expect that home sales eased by around 1.5 per cent in the month. The following day data on home prices for July is released. Also on Tuesday weekly data on chain store sales is released together with the influential Richmond Federal Reserve survey.
On Wednesday the so-called 'flash' PMI manufacturing gauges are released in the US, Europe and China. While the survey methodology and results are doubtful, unfortunately they are watched by a number of analysts and investors. The Chinese results will be especially scrutinized.
Also in the US, the usual weekly data on housing lending is released on Wednesday.
On Thursday the US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen delivers a speech while weekly data on claims for unemployment insurance is issued together with new home sales and durable goods orders.
Economists expect that new home sales may have lifted by around 1.6 per cent in August but also forecast that a key measure of business spending -- orders for durable, or long-lasting, goods -- may have fallen by 1.8 per cent in the month.
The week concludes with the US economic GDP figures for the June quarter are released. There are three iterations of the economic growth figures each quarter: the advance, preliminary and final estimates. The final estimates for the June quarter are expected to confirm that the US economy grew at a 3.7 per cent annualized rate, well above the “speed limit” of around 2.5 per cent after a weak but weather-affected March quarter result of 0.6 per cent growth.
The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey for September is issued. The preliminary reading was down sharply, a fall of 6.7 per cent to 85.7 in line with weaker sentiment readings in other parts of the globe.

By Barry Norman, Investors Trading Academy

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