6/20/2011 – theGrio and CNBC Market Update
VIDEO - This week investors will get a read on consumers with earnings reports from Best Buy, Kroger and BlackBerry maker -- Research in Motion...
This week investors will get a read on consumers with earnings reports from Best Buy, Kroger and BlackBerry maker — Research in Motion. We also expect quite a bit of data on the economy and housing.
The Federal Reserve will meet to discuss the economy and interest rates. During their April meeting the fed kept its key interest rate – which affects mortgage, credit card and student loan rates – unchanged. And said the job market is gradually improving, but the housing sector remains depressed.
We’ll get two reads on housing, starting with the May existing home sales report which looks at previously owned homes. In April, sales dipped by nearly 1 percent, suggesting a sluggish housing recovery. We’ll also get the May new homes report. In April, new home sales rose 7.3 percent, the second straight month of improvement. The median price of a new home rose 1.6 percent to nearly $218,000.
We’ll gain insight on the economy with the final estimate of first quarter GDP — which looks at all the goods and services produced from January thru March. The previous estimate showed the economy grew by 1.8 percent, much slower than the previous quarter and caused concern about future growth.
