[Deborah Marchini, Cnn Anchor:] Well, the markets will not be open today, but we'll have a lot of stuff of interest to watch this week.
[David Haffenreffer, Cnn Anchor:] Yes, Christine Romans is here with a bit of a preview on this holiday.
[Christine Romans, Cnn Correspondent:] Hi. After Friday's pre-President's Day sale, some people are going to be happy that the markets are not open today, giving them a chance to sort of think about what happened last week and move on to this week. We have a lot of interesting things that will be happening starting on Tuesday. Today the markets are closed, as you know. The week ahead should be pretty interesting, earnings on tap and also some data, specifically that data of the CPI, the consumer price index, on Wednesday. Friday, one of the reasons why the market was was so hurt was because of that producer price index PPI was much stronger than expected. So they'll be closely zeroing in on Wednesday's consumer price index that's for the month of January to see if it continues the same trend. There's also the December trade balance numbers, which can be interesting when you watch the bond market and the currency market as well. So those Wednesday data Wednesday data is really the key on the Street here. Also federal budget for January that one that one also will be much less noticed than the consumer price index. Thursday, we get leading economic indicators for the month of January, sometimes known as the lagging economic indicators, as you know, because we've already seen much of the data that are in those and weekly job, as well. Weekly jobless claims have been more interesting of late because so many people are very curious about just how just how tight the labor market is. And we've been hearing so much about the layoffs going on in the jobs market as well. So that will be a good thing to continue to watch.
[Marchini:] I hear the jobless claims may take on special significance this week because this is also the week that the government does its survey for the overall February unemployment and nonfarm payroll.
[Romans:] Very interesting. Well, you're probably right then: That will be very important to watch as well, because that will give us a better indication of what's going to come in that big, huge report that everyone watches the jobless for.
[Haffenreffer:] Is this likely to be a week in which the markets are pushed around by the economicator, rather than earnings figures coming out?
[Romans:] Well, it depends: Some people are starting about the fact that there were those sort of scary confessionals last week already, and a bit earlier than they would have liked to have seen. So people are going to be on guard for what kind of guidance might be coming out, if any kind of corporate reports that come out this week. We have a pretty full plate of numbers this week to watch, as well. The retailers are going to get under way. We'll talk a little bit more about that in the next hour. But you really have people on the Street concerned. Something interesting, though: The Dow, last week, actually closed slightly higher for the week. The Nasdaq did not. The Dow is now actually slightly higher for the year, and the Nasdaq is not. So there's some interesting rotation continuing to go around. The defensive stocks continue to get a little bit of interest from time to time. The thing to watch at this point is what happens tomorrow, when people come back from the three-day weekend. Is there going to be bargain hunting that comes in? Are people going to say you know what last week, we pushed it down too far too fast, and they start to come back to that whole idea that all the bad news is factored in? We hear that from time to time, and then suddenly we get another warning and then people say oh, no, it's not factored in yet. So will there be bargain hunting when we come back to the markets tomorrow, or will there be continuation of these worries about what corporate America what kind of damage they're going to sustain and for how long?
[Haffenreffer:] Are people still saying, for the most part, the markets in general cannot make a recovery without the Nasdaq?
[Romans:] Absolutely. I'm hearing people don't think that the markets can make a recovery until we start to see numbers that are better from the corporate side of things, not necessarily from the economic data. And as you know, everyone lots of people keep saying the first half of the year is in question, at least the first half of the year. So you know, markets are supposed to look beyond, they're supposed to look ahead, and they're having a really hard time doing that right now.
[Marchini:] They're not getting much guidance, either. When you hear the likes of Dell and others saying we're not going to project beyond the next quarter because we don't have a clue.
[Romans:] Exactly: The buzz word is visibility, you know. Everyone keeps talking about the visibility. When we get visibility back in the earnings, then we'll be able to start to think that it might be the right time to try to find a place to buy in the market. Right now, there's just no visibility.
[Marchini:] All right, thanks, Christine.
[Romans:] Sure.