By Nicholas Jasinski
Data on the U.S. consumer and housing market, plus several notable earnings reports, will be this week's highlights. Barring any surprises, federal financial regulators' Congressional testimony will be the main event on the banking front.
On Wednesday, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg are scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services Committee. They'll discuss the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and efforts to maintain confidence in the U.S. banking system.
Earnings reports this week include BioNTech and Carnival on Monday, followed by Lululemon Athletica, McCormick, Micron Technology, and Walgreens Boots Alliance on Tuesday. Cintas and Paychex publish results on Wednesday, when Intel also hosts an investor event.
Economic data highlights of the week will be Tuesday's Consumer Confidence Index for March from the Conference Board and the Bureau of Economic Analysis' personal income and expenditures report for February on Friday. Consumer confidence is expected to fall slightly from the prior month.
Housing market data out this week will include S&P CoreLogic's Case-Shiller National Home Price Index for January on Tuesday and the National Association of Realtors' Pending Home Sales Index for February on Wednesday.
Monday 3/27
BioNTech and Carnival report quarterly results.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas releases the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey for March. Consensus estimate is for a negative 11 reading, a 2.5 point improvement from February. The index has had 10 consecutive readings of less than zero.
Tuesday 3/28
Lululemon Athletica, McCormick, Micron Technology, and Walgreens Boots Alliance announce earnings.
S&P CoreLogic releases the Case-Shiller National Home Price Index for January. Expectations are for home prices, as measured by the index, to increase 3% year over year, following a 5.8% rise in December. Annualized home-price growth has decelerated every month since peaking last March at a record 20.8%. This past week, the National Association of Realtors reported that the median existing-home sales price was $363,000 in February, a 0.2% decrease from a year earlier. This was the first decline for existing-home prices since 2012.
The Conference Board releases its Consumer Confidence Index for March. Economists forecast a 101 reading, roughly two points fewer than in February. The index is off its recent lows from last summer, buoyed by continued strength in the labor market. In February, 52% of consumers responded that jobs were "plentiful," while only 10.5% said jobs were "hard to get."
Wednesday 3/29
Banking regulators appear before the House Financial Services Committee to discuss the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg are scheduled to testify.
Cintas and Paychex hold conference calls to discuss quarterly results
Intel hosts a conference call to discuss the company's data-center and artificial-intelligence initiatives.
The NAR releases its Pending Home Sales Index for February. The consensus call is for pending-home sales to decrease 2.3% month over month after a 8.1% jump in January. The January increase was the largest since June of 2020 and followed a rough 2022 for pending-home sales, with declines in the first 11 months of the year.
Thursday 3/30
The Bureau of Economic Analysis reports its third and final estimate of fourth-quarter gross-domestic product growth. GDP is expected to have grown at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.7%, unchanged from the BEA's second estimate.
Friday 3/31
The BEA reports personal income and expenditures for February. Both income and spending are forecast to rise 0.3% month over month. This compares with gains of 0.6% and 1.8%, respectively, in January. The core personal-consumption expenditures price index, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, is seen increasing 4.7% year over year, which would match the January data.
Write to Nicholas Jasinski at nicholas.jasinski@barrons.com
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March 26, 2023 21:33 ET (01:33 GMT)
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