by Calculated Risk on 2/04/2012 01:21:00 PM

Earlier:
• Summary for Week ending February 3rd

This will be a light week for economic releases. The key economic release is the December trade balance report to be released on Friday.

Also on Friday Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will speak to the National Association of Homebuilders: "Housing Markets in Transition".

Europe will be a focus, especially any announcements about Greece. Also the ECB holds a meeting on Thursday.

The mortgage settlement might be announced this coming week too.

----- Monday, Feb 6th-----
No releases scheduled.

----- Tuesday, Feb 7th -----
10:00 AM ET: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for December from the BLS.

This graph shows job openings (yellow line), hires (purple), Layoff, Discharges and other (red column), and Quits (light blue column) from the JOLTS.

In general, the number of job openings (yellow) has been trending up, and were up about 7% year-over-year compared to November 2010.

10:00 AM: Testimony from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, "The Economic Outlook and the Federal Budget Situation", Before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. Senate (repeat of House testimony).

3:00 PM: Consumer Credit for December. The consensus is for a $7.0 billion increase in consumer credit.

----- Wednesday, Feb 8th -----
7:00 AM: The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the mortgage purchase applications index. This index was especially weak last year, although this does not include all the cash buyers.

----- Thursday, Feb 9th -----
8:30 AM: The initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released. The consensus is for an increase to 370,000 from 367,000 last week.

10:00 AM: Monthly Wholesale Trade: Sales and Inventories for December. The consensus is for a 0.5% increase in inventories.

----- Friday, Feb 10th -----
8:30 AM: Trade Balance report for December from the Census Bureau.

Imports have been mostly moving sideways for the past six months (seasonally adjusted). Exports are well above the pre-recession peak and up 10% compared to November 2010; imports are up about 13% compared to November 2010.

The consensus is for the U.S. trade deficit to increase to $48.5 billion in December, up from from $47.8 billion in November. Export activity to Europe will be closely watched.

9:55 AM: Reuters/University of Mich Consumer Sentiment preliminary for February.

The final January Reuters / University of Michigan consumer sentiment index increased to 75.0, up from the December reading of 69.9.

The consensus is for a decrease in February to 74.3 from 75.0 in January.

12:30 PM: Speech by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, "Housing Markets in Transition", At the 2012 National Association of Homebuilders International Builders' Show, Orlando, Florida