4/12/10 – theGrio & CNBC Market Update
VIDEO - Following mixed reports on the economy, investors await first-quarter earnings in technology and finance, the Fed's Beige Book, and reports on production and inflation...
TheGrio and CNBC team up to deliver a weekly report of money matters and market updates for our community.
CNBC’s Shartia Brantley reports:
Last week, analysts received mixed news on the economy with conflicting trends in housing and employment. Pending homes sales figures, a leading indicator for housing which measures contract activity, were up 8 percent in February. But first time claims for unemployment benefits rose by nearly 18,000 people from the week before, a much higher figure than expected.
Analysts also considered unprecedented growth in the service sector. The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) Non-Manufacturing report posted a 55.4 reading in March, its best reading in four years.
This week, investors await the release of first-quarter earnings in technology and finance, and economic reports on production and inflation.
Alcoa officially kicks off the 2010 earnings season Monday. Intel, Google, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase are among other Dow Jones components expected to report first quarter performance.
The Federal Reserve will release its April 2010 Beige Book on Wednesday, providing information on current economic conditions and insight on credit, consumer spending, and manufacturing. Conditions in each of the Fed’s twelve districts are covered, including Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas, and San Francisco.
On Thursday, the “March 2010 Industrial Production (IP) report”:http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/ is also due from the Fed. The IP report looks at manufacturing, utilities, and mining. In the eighth straight month of improvement, production edged up 0.1 percent in February.
Are consumer prices on the rise? We’ll get a read on inflation with the “March 2010 Consumer Price Index (CPI) report”:http://www.bls.gov/cpi/ from the Dept. of Labor, which tracks price changes for necessary items such as food, clothing, and cars. The February 2010 CPI showed no change from the previous month.
Watch the video, exclusively on theGrio.com.
