|
Published December 2, 2008 at 4:16 PM
|
 There's barely a month left in this tumultuous year of 2008, but there are plenty of dates that will place a marker on where we've been economically and possibly shed some light on where we're going.
Continue reading below
One number that people will watch closely is the employment report set to be released on Friday. The expected forecast is that 325,000 nonfarm payroll jobs will be lost and the unemployment rate will jump to 6.8% from 6.5%. It's no surprise considering the financial sector alone this week has continued to make announcements of major job cuts. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. will lay off 9,200 or 21% of Washington Mutual Inc.'s employees by the end of 2009. Bank of America Corp. is expected to cut about 10,000 investment banking jobs when it completes the acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co., according to CNBC. For a closer look at some of these key dates this week, please see below. - Gerald Magpily
Deal Economic Calendar: week of Dec. 1
|
December |
| Wednesday, Dec. 3 |
- 8:30 a.m. EST- Revised productivity for the third quarter ...
- 2 p.m. EST- Beige Book, the Fed's anecdotal report on economic conditions around the country, is for consideration at the Federal Open Market Committee's Dec. 16 meeting.
|
|
| Thursday, Dec. 4 |
- 8:30 a.m. EST - Initial jobless claims for the week ended Nov. 29
- 10 a.m. EST - Factory orders for October
- 11:15 a.m. EST - Bernake speech: The Fed chairman speaks to Presidents' Conference on Homeownership and Mortgage Initiatives. on the topic: Housing and Housing Finance
- Chain store sales EST - November monthly sales volumes from individual department, chain, discount, and
apparel stores. Chain store sales are an indicator of retail sales and consumer spending trends.
|
|
| Friday. Dec. 5 |
- 8:30 a.m. EST - Nonfarm payrolls for the month of November
- 8:30 a.m. EST - Employment report: It is actually two separate reports that are the results of two separate surveys. The household survey is a survey of roughly 60,000 households. This survey produces the unemployment rate. The establishment survey is a survey of 375,000 businesses.
- 3 p.m. - Consumer credit
|
|
Source: Yahoo, Reuters and TheStreet.com
|
Comments
|
The Beige book news is out and the news is bad. In opinion the Fed needs to get ultra-aggressive, even bringing rates to 0% for a while.