The Week Ahead for the US Markets: June 21-25

The U.S. market moved positively last week due partly to a glimmer of hope in the Euro zone The S&P 500 Index has risen from 1,091.60 to 1,117.51 by 2.4%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10,450.6396 on June 18, increasing by 2.3% from the point 10,211.0703. The NASDAQ Composite has inclined from 2243.6001 to 2309.80 by 3.0%.

Overall Consensus: Slightly bearish As Existing Home Sales and New Home Sales were expected to fall, the U.S. market week ahead is estimated to move negatively. Moreover, GDP is expected to be adjusted downwards.

The coming week will be mainly dominated by economic indicators. Here is the outlook for major events in the U.S. market.

Monday, June 21

10:00 AM The U.S. Census Bureau will release Retail Trade Quarterly Financial Report for the 1^st quarter of 2010. After-tax profits averaged 3.0 cents per dollar of sales for retail corporations for the 4^th quarter 2009. This is 0.7 cents above that for the previous 3 months.

Tuesday, June 22

10:00 AM The Existing Home Sales for May will be released. Existing home sales in April was 5.77 million, rising by 7.6% in an annual basis. However, the supply on the market increased 11.5%.

Wednesday, June 23

10:00 AM The U.S. Census Bureau will announce New Home Sales for May. Sales of new one-family housed in April were 504,000 in a seasonally adjusted annual basis, 14.8% above the revised March estimate of 439,000.

10:30 AM EIA Petroleum Status Report will be published, providing the crude oil inventories at the end of previous Friday. U.S. commercial crude oil inventories at the end of last week increased by 1.7 million barrels from the previous week, closing at 363.1 million barrels. Furthermore, the average world crude oil price on June 11 was $70.09 per barrel, $0.88 less than last week’s price, but $1.85 above the price of one year ago.

2:15 PM FOMC meeting announcement will be published. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) can determine short Interest rates in the U.S. and whether add or subtract credit markets liquidity. FOMC meeting will announce its policy decision as the arm of the Federal Reserve

Thursday, June 24

8:30 AM Durable Goods Orders for May will be released. New orders for manufactured durable goods in April were $193.9 billion by increasing $5.6 billion or 2.9%

8:30 AM Jobless claims for the last week will be announced. Jobless claims released last week increase by 12,000 from 460,000 in the June 5 week to 472,000 in the June 12 week. However, the four-week average slipped slightly to 463,500.

Friday, June 25

8:30 AM GDP (third estimate) for the 1^st quarter of 2010 will be released. The second estimate of GDP growth was adjusted down to 3.0% at an annual rate from the initial estimate of 3.2%. Moreover, the GDP price index at the second estimate was revised up to 1.0% in an annual basis from the initial 0.9%

9:55 AM Consumer Sentiment for June 2010 will be published. The Consumer sentiment can reflect the strength of consumer spending directly. The consumer sentiment index increased to 75.5 in the mid-June reading from 73.6 for the final reading of May, obtaining the best level since the January 2008 (78.4).

Key words for the week ahead

Retail Trade Report, Existing Home Sales, Crude oil inventories, FOMC, Durable Goods Orders, Jobless Claims, GDP, Consumer Sentiment