Wall Street braces for flood of economic data

[IDemo]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14544042/

Updated: 7:58 p.m. ET Aug. 27, 2006

NEW YORK - Wall Street this week will get data it has craved to help get a better handle on the economy and whether it has pulled back further than policy-makers wanted.

Over the next five days, some two dozen economic reports will be released — including consumer confidence, job growth and manufacturing figures. Investors might even get a better clue about what Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke thinks of interest rates when minutes from the last Fed meeting are released.

These readings might help give Wall Street the guidance it has been clamoring for, especially after last week’s lackluster performance. But the real question is, how many people will be around to trade on the news? This is, after all, the last week of August.

“I looked up the word doldrums in the dictionary, and there’s no coincidence it comes from the word dull,” David Darst, chief investment strategist of Morgan Stanley’s global wealth management group, said Friday. “You might see some kind of fluctuation next week with these reports, but people will come back to work after Labor Day and sort through everything that’s gone on. That’s when you’ll see volume go up.”

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Batten down the hatches, Cap'n!

This is gonna be a rough week for the moneyed class.

--p!

[54anickel]

2. Don't let them fool ya into complacency with the low volume line. The

last week of August also has a history of sizeable losses.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/27/markets/sun_lookahead/index.htm

snip>

Those that aren't vacationing through Labor Day can look forward to what has become a notoriously bearish week on Wall Street, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac.

For six of the last nine years, the Dow industrials have lost an average of 2.9 percent in the last week of August, according to the Almanac, while the broader S&P 500 index has lost 2.7 percent. The tech-fueled Nasdaq composite has lost an average of 2.4 percent in the week.

The weakness is largely seasonal - late summer is typically brutal for the bulls. Why? Less people trading less shares makes the market more volatile and more susceptible to news that is perceived as negative.

Add in this year's increased worries about an economic slowdown and you have a tough week on tap.

[Monkeyman]

3. Got to wonder how Bush and boys will spin this week

Oh ya Terror alerts

[Auntie Bush]

4. How are all those reports going to help anyone?

They're all LIES anyway. The administration has never told the truth about anything. All we can learn is that things are much worse than any of the reports suggest.