Saturday, May 4, 2013

The Week Ahead: Chairman Ben, and the Sound of Silence

Fed Chairman Bernanke gives the keynote address as the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank's conference on bank structure and competition. He is scheduled to speak Friday at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. Click here for full information on the conference.

Otherwise... the sound of silence, at least when it comes to major economic reports. There simply aren't any scheduled.

Leading indicators (in descending order of importance):

The interest rate spread between 10-year Treasuries and the federal funds rate, reported continually during market hours.

The M2 money supply, at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

The average hourly workweek in manufacturing from the employment report, at 8:30 a.m. Friday.

The S&P 500 index, reported continually during market hours.

Average weekly initial jobless claims, at 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

Other reports of interest:

Wednesday: Petroleum inventories at 10:30 a.m.

Friday: The Treasury budget -- think federal deficit -- at 2 p.m.

I also follow the Baltic dry index, released daily, tracking the volume of global maritime shipments of coal, iron ore, grain and other raw materials.

Fedsters

Chairman Ben isn't the only money policy maker to be speaking during the week.

Two Federal Open Market Committee members are speaking. They are Fed Gov. Jeremey Stein on Wednesday and Kansas City Fed Pres. Esther George on Friday.

An FOMC alternate, Philadelphia Fed Pres. Charles Plosser, delivers a speech on Thursday.

Analytical universe

This week I'll be analyzing new bull and bear signals among 2,299 stocks and exchange-traded funds that have some analyst interest. They are traded both on the major U.S. exchanges and over-the-counter. I've reduced my universe from last week to mid-cap stocks and larger, defined as market capitalization of $1 billion and greater.

Trading calendar

By my rules, I'm allowed to trade June options for the short legs of vertical spreads and August options for single calls and puts and for straddles. Of course, shares are good at any time.

Good trading!

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