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, investors received mixed news on the economy as earnings season got off to a good start with job creation and big profits reported at Intel, JPMorgan Chase, and Google. However, in his report to Congress, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that we’re not out of the woods yet, although the economy is recovering. Bernanke’s outlook was echoed in a second week of unexpected increases in new claims for unemployment benefits. President Obama signed an $18 billion extension for existing unemployment benefit claims which will extend aid through June 2.
This week, investors await a slew of additional finance, technology, and retail earnings reports, and data on housing and other key economic indicators.
Earnings season gains steam with first-quarter reports from Citigroup, AT&T, McDonald’s, and Microsoft.
Two key housing reports are due, starting with Thursday’s March 2010 Existing Home Sales report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) which includes sales data of previously owned homes and condos. The February report showed a 0.6 percent month-to-month drop in existing-home sales. On Friday we’ll also get the March 2010 New Residential Sales report from the Census Bureau. The February report showed a 2 percent decline in new home sales from the previous month.
We’ll get a look at upcoming economic trends with The Conference Board’s March 2010 Leading Economic Index (LEI), which tracks activity like building permit requests, initial jobless claims and stock prices. The February report showed just a 0.1 percent gain month-to-month, but analysts suggest that economic conditions will moderately improve in the near term.
Watch the video, exclusively on theGrio.com.