Upcoming Week Should Have A Lot Of Data From The Government--Will It Be Good Or Bad News?

URL and to post comments: http://dollarvigilante.com/blog/2013/10/21/no-data-is-good-data-a-busy-week-for-number-crunching-econom.html Monday,October 21, 2013 [Editor's Note: The following post is by TDV contributor, Justin O'Connell] The US is in acute crisis. Since 2008-2009 the US has sat back and for the most part watched European economic struggles. Now, the whole world watches as the US caves in. And it doesn't begin and end with the debt crises and shutdowns of the past weeks. The US braces only now for a roller coaster of economic data to be unleashed onto the market this week and in the following weeks. In such strained economic climates for the US, like the old adage 'no news is good news,'  no data is good data. But, Bloomberg's Chief Economist, Michael McDonough, tweeted a few days ago that we could soon get the “the mother of all data release days.” That's not what I would want if I had any ties to the US. Especially after the October the US has had. The delayed September jobs report will hit the wires Tuesday. Other delayed data, on import and export prices, will be released the next day, while a fire hose of earnings data floods markets, as McDonald's, Microsoft, Amazon.com, Boeing, and Caterpillar, and the more than 140 S&P 500 companies report. Postponed during the shutdown, data like Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly job report will also be made available in the coming weeks. So, in true Soviet fashion, economic data will be tantamount in the coming weeks in our "commercial communist" paradise. We will hear pundits and experts opine over the implications of fairy-tale numbers, and their nattering will carry intellectual weight with far too many people. The general feeling which will set upon the markets in the coming weeks will tell us one thing: the short-term impact of the 16-day government shutdown on consumer and business confidence, as well as economic growth.  It could also put an end to the S&P 500's record highs. The End Of The Recovery Illusion? If you don't think much, you might have been under the impression we were well on our way to recovery. Now, perhaps, you're just confused. And the volatility isn't over. This data will contribute to it, and the Fed will print for a little longer. Many people don't expect the jobs report to reveal anything about the shutdown. This particular jobs report was due October 4. It won't be until next time around when the 70,000 federal workers who applied for unemployment upon the shutdown will be tallied. This will be the last employment report the Fed gets before it meets on October 29 and 30. They won't be meeting to discuss the end of their torrid affair with paper. Here is this week in your US-centric economic world: Monday Earnings: McDonald's, SAP, Halliburton, Gannett, Manpower, Texas Instruments, Discover Financial, Netflix, VMWare, Check Point Software, Celanese ,Varian Medical, VF Corp 08:30 a.m. Existing home sales Tuesday Earnings: DuPont, Travelers, United Tech, CIT Group, EMC, Lockheed Martin, Freeport-McMoRan, Harley-Davidson, Illinois Tool Works, Forest Labs, AK Steel, Amgen, Apollo Group, Panera Bread, Juniper Networks, McGraw-Hill, Kimberly-Clark, Whirlpool, Wipro, Ace Ltd. CR Bard, Altera 08:30 a.m. Employment report for September (was due Oct. 4) 10:00 a.m. Richmond Fed survey Wednesday Earnings: Boeing, Caterpillar, Eli Lilly, AT&T, Nasdaq OMX, Norfolk Southern, Dr. Pepper Snapple, GlaxoSmithKline, BE Aerospace, Owens Corning, Six Flags, Tupperware, General Dynamics, Motorola Solutions, Wyndham Worldwide, Akamai, Angie's List, Citrix, Ethan Allen, Fusion-io, Fraco, Leggett and Platt, LSI, Teradyne, True Blue, Wellpoint, ETrade 08:30 a.m. Import and export prices (was due Oct. 10) 09:00 a.m. FHFA home prices Thursday Earnings: Microsoft, Samsung, Ford, MMM, Dow Chemical, Amazon.com, Colgate-Palmolive Hershey, Credit Suisse, Sirius XM Radio, KKR, Cabela's Xerox, Bemis, Ball Corp, Mead Johnson, International Paper, Hershey, Celgene, Decker's Outdoor, Zynga, Freescale Semi, KLA-Tencor, Under Armour, Unillever, WPP Group, Diamond Offshore, Western Digital, Express Scripts, Cabot Oil and Gas 08:30 a.m. Initial claims 08:58 a.m. Manufacturing PMI 10:00 a.m. New home sales 10:00 a.m. JOLTs data (was due Oct. 8) Friday Earnings: Procter & Gamble, UPS, Moody's , Weyerhaeuser, Sherwin-Williams, Legg Mason, Simon Properites, Rockewell Collins, Eaton, Newell Rubbermaid, Brookfield Office Properties, Lear, AbbVie 08:30 a.m. Durable goods 09:55 a.m. Consumer sentiment