Last week all three benchmark US indexes recorded daily records low since more than a year. Investors withdrawal from market was influenced by the statement of the Feds chairman Ben Bernanke who shared central banks intention to reduce stimulus till the end of this year.
Although the statement was more of a hint of what would happen if the economy is showing stable growth, the simple pointing of a possible outline for stimulus tapering was enough to drive down Dow Jones Industrial average along with S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes by 1.8%-2.1%.
The government will release on Wednesday its third estimate of the GDP for the first three months of the year. The second estimate for GDP, rose 2.4% in the quarter. Economists from Briefing.com expect it to stay the same according to MoneyCNN. Reports of the housing market are also due this week. The housing market is an important indicator of the economy condition. The Michigan sentiment would show the consumer confidence through income and spending.
In corporate news, couple of companies would report earnings this week among which are Nike, Blackberry, Carnival Cruises, General Mills.
Microsoft would be a center of attention due to making a preview of its new Windows operation system called Blue. The presentation would take place in San Francisco from Wednesday till Friday.
Economists noted it will take several months to find out if the economy is really making progress. A good argument for that would be decreased unemployment rate.
“If you don’t get more job creation and higher incomes, you are not going to see a big increase in consumer spending or economic growth,” Joshua Shapiro, chief economist at MFR Inc said to MarketWatch.