A Week Full of Economic Numbers

There're some key economic data coming out this week that warrants some mentioning and will definitely have impact on traders and investors this week. For all of those who think trading on economic news is hubris just ask our friends who didn't heed the Producer Price Index numbers or the Fed minutes last week. The DJIA closed 12601.19-227.49( -1.8%) off this news and higher oil prices last Wednesday. Ignoring these numbers last week cost a lot of heartache. So to prepare for this week we first focus on the important numbers Wednesday, the Durable goods orders which reflect the new orders placed with domestic manufacturers for immediate and future delivery of factory hard goods. It is a real good indicator for forecasting short term economic growth and is published monthly ahead of Factory Orders a week later. The consensus is Durable goods will be down -1.1%, so expect these numbers to have a big impact. Next on the weekly agenda is the preliminary 1 Qtr GDP numbers being released Thursday). The consensus is that the preliminary numbers will show 1.0% growth increase keeping us away from the technical definition of a recession. However, the Federal Resevere last week lowered its expectations for the economy because of the housing downturn,credit crunch, and rising fuel prices. So, it is hard to say how the investing community will react to this data. I would be looking at shorting the market with ETF's like Proshares products that offer over 32 different shorting opportunities. These our the most important things coming out this week and there implications can be severe. So watch out!!!