[Deborah Marchini, Cnn Anchor:] We've got a considerable number of retailers due to report results today. That'll give us some picture of the consumer environment going forward. We look to hear from Barnes & Noble and Borders, expected to show a loss in the first case and for Borders, no profit. We'll also get Claire's Stores, Tommy Hilfiger, American Eagle Outfitters, Men's Warehouse, Bombay Company, Claire's Stores, and even PETsMART. Markets editor Jennifer Westhoven is here. She's the got the eye on some other things investors will be watching for today hi.
[Jennifer Westhoven, Cnn Markets Editor:] Hi. Well, we finally got some of the economic data that the markets have been waiting for all week, plus all the talk about Alan Greenspan speaking tonight. But let's just start off with those numbers because we're going to get those first. The first number coming this morning is the weekly jobless claims. Now, there's the forecast for 388,000. And that is a survey of economists polled by Reuters. And you can see, it's just a slight uptick from last week at 380,000. Now, the main trend here that the economists are talking about is, they're hoping that this will be the third straight week where the number does not touch that 400,000 mark, where we're seen as backing off from that, with the idea behind it being that the economy may be putting in a little bit of a rebound. They want to see the number of layoffs slowing down. They want to get the sense that corporate America is finally thinking they've laid off enough people and cut enough. Even if it falls a bit below that, that seems to be OK. That's one of the things that the economists are talking about. After that, though, we get new house new home sales for April. Now, here also you're seeing a little bit of pullback. But March was seen as extremely strong. There you see over a million units on an annualized basis. But March was seen, again, as very strong. So the slip-back is not seen as a problem. Housing is really seen as one of the core areas in the economy that has held up. That's been one of the areas. That's why, you know, the Federal Reserve, in fact, can say: We think that there still is growth, that things are OK. And it's one of the main reasons why, in fact, many people think we have not slipped into recession. Let's get to that speech. Now, of course, the Fed chairman has not spoken for quite some time. I'll just tell you what Ian Shepherdson, who is the economist at High Frequency Economics says. He said he has been remarkably quiet and that tonight's dinner, which is at the Economic Club in New York, is the right occasion for Mr. Greenspan to tell the markets whether or not his view on the economy has changed at all. Now, many in the markets think that the Fed has become less gloomy about the economy. But here Mr. Shepherdson is emphasizing the fact that we're only really getting that sense from parsing out these statements. And that could be seen as over-analysis. They really want to get a sense from the chairman of Federal Reserve himself about what he thinks. They'll also be listening for any talk about inflation. And any of this, of course, because it's coming at 8:20 Eastern time tonight, we would probably first see it in the Asian markets.
[Marchini:] Right now, the question for Mr. Greenspan, basically: folks trying to figure out what the next rate cut is going to be, if it's a half point or a quarter when the Fed policy makers meet in June any ideas?
[Westhoven:] Well, that sounds like what they're going to be listening they're going to be listening for words like "inflation." They're going to be listening for words like "rebound," how much that he thinks that's OK. It's also going to be so difficult, because he always speaks in what's known as "Greenspan speak" and "Fed speak."
[Marchini:] Yes.
[Westhoven:] So you're going you can bet that there will be a lot of people sitting up tonight watching this on, you know, whatever way that they can watch it and parsing out those words to get a real sense of what they think probably lots of economists' comments we'll be looking for tomorrow morning.
[Marchini:] All right, thank you, Jennifer. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com