The April unemployment rate will be released next Friday, after
auto makers and retailers report sales for the month and following
recent signs of life in the labor market.
The number of quarterly reports slows next week, with three
components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and one-sixth of the
Standard & Poor's 500 Index members posting results.
And Continental Airlines Inc. (CAL) and UAL Corp.'s (UAUA)
United Airlines are expected to announce Monday that they're
merging to form the world's largest airline by traffic.
April Unemployment Report Out Next Friday
The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless
benefits continued to fall last week, underscoring that the labor
market is improving but remains troubled. Nonfarm payroll
employment in March rose for just the second month in more than two
years. On Friday, Lawrence Summers, director of the White House
National Economic Council, predicted job growth will rise faster in
relation to gross domestic product than models economists have been
relying on would suggest.
April Auto Sales Expected To Increase 21%
Auto makers will report April U.S. car sales Monday, and while
demand has eased a bit from the past month's relatively torrid
pace, the numbers should show the recovery is humming along nicely.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales is expected to jump to
11.2 million cars and trucks from 9.2 million a year earlier,
according to Edmunds.com. That would mark a decline from an
incentive-fueled 11.8 million rate for March. The
automotive-information aggregator expects General Motors Co. (GM)
to have the largest market share at 18.1%, followed by Toyota Motor
Corp. (TM, 7203.TO) at 17% and Ford Motor Co. (F) at 16.8%.
Retailers To Report April Sales Thursday
Major retailers will report April same-store sales Thursday. The
industry has posted improved results in recent months as shoppers
returned to stores after staying away during the worst of the
recession. A number of high-profile retailers posted dramatically
improved March same-store sales and boosted their guidance for the
fiscal first quarter as they benefited from easy year-earlier
comparisons and an earlier Easter.
Media Company 1Q Results Seen Improving
Major media companies--including News Corp. (NWS, NWSA, NWS.AU),
Time Warner Inc. (TWX) and CBS Corp. (CBS)--will report results
next week amid an improving advertising market. News Corp., which
also will benefit from the record performance of its 3-D movie hit
"Avatar," comes on Tuesday, followed a day later by the other two.
Optimism about the yearly "upfront" sales of television
commercials, which start in earnest in May, is being fueled by a
rebound in ad spending by the auto and consumer-products
industries, which are big players in the upfront market.
March Personal Incomes Likely Rose Slightly
The government is expected to report a small increase in March
personal incomes Monday, when it also will detail personal spending
for the month. Incomes were flat in February. Data on March
construction spending and the Institute of Supply Manager's April
manufacturing index are due the same day.
On Tuesday, the government details March factory orders and the
National Association of Realtors describes March pending home
sales, followed the next day by the ISM's report on the services
sector. A preliminary reading of first-quarter productivity is due
Thursday, followed next Friday by a report on March consumer
credit.
Among appearances by Federal Reserve officials: Fed Governor
Elizabeth Duke speaks Saturday in Philadelphia; Boston Fed
President Eric Rosengren speaks Wednesday in Boston; Chairman Ben
Bernanke and Chicago Fed President Charles Evans speak Thursday in
Chicago; and Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker speaks Thursday
in Richmond, Va.
Big Crowd Seen At Berkshire Hathaway Meeting
Attendance at the annual shareholders meeting of Berkshire
Hathaway Inc. (BRKA, BRKB) this weekend is likely to draw even more
investors than last year, when a record 35,000 or so turned up to
get advice from Chairman Warren Buffett in the wake of the worst
financial crisis since the Great Depression. The company's purchase
of railroad operator Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNI) in
February brought at least 65,000 new shareholders, swelling the
ranks of one of the most loyal shareholder groups in the world to
more than 550,000.
Continental, UAL May Announce Merger Monday
Continental and UAL are expected to announce merger plans Monday
after their board meet to review the deal, people familiar with the
matter told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. The United board
is meeting Friday, while Continental's board is meeting Friday and
Sunday, these people said. They cautioned that negotiations could
fall apart at the last minute as they did in 2008, when Continental
backed away.
General Growth To Ask Court For Auction Rules
General Growth Properties Inc. (GGP) will ask the New York
bankruptcy court Tuesday to approve rules that will govern an
auction process to determine who'll get to sponsor the mall giant's
exit from Chapter 11 protection. General Growth is backing a plan
sponsored by a group of investors led by Brookfield Asset
Management Inc. (BAM), which has offered to pump $6.5 billion into
the company to finance its exit from bankruptcy.
Ex-Bear Stearns Chief, Treasury Leaders Testify
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the bipartisan group
looking into causes of the credit crisis, is expected to hear from
former Bear Stearns Cos. Chief Executive Jimmy Cayne and former
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson during hearings Wednesday and
Thursday. Also expected to testify are Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner; Securities and Exchange Commission head Christopher Cox
and his predecessor, William Donaldson; and Michael Neal, chairman
and chief executive of General Electric Co. (GE) unit GE
Capital.
Toyota US Sales Chief Goes Before House Panel
Toyota's U.S. Sales Chief Jim Lentz will testify Thursday before
the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is examining an
engineering firm's study that the Japanese auto maker said cleared
questions about the safety of car electronics. Toyota hired the
firm Exponent in December to conduct tests regarding claims of
sudden acceleration and the relationship with the
electronic-throttle control system. A preliminary release of the
study that Exponent shared with congressional committees in
February supported Toyota's statement that there is no evidence of
problems in the electronics in Toyota and Lexus products.
Obama May Name Supreme Court Nominee Next Week
President Barack Obama has begun interviewing candidates for an
opening on the Supreme Court, to replace retiring Justice John Paul
Stevens, and could name his nominee next week. The White House had
said it hoped to have a nominee by the end of April because it
anticipates a confirmation fight and wants to have the new justice
in place well before the fall term begins.
Euro-IMF Aid Package For Greece Could Come Sunday
Euro-zone finance ministers will meet in Brussels on Sunday to
discuss a multibillion-euro package of loans for Greece, the
chairman of the Eurogroup of euro-zone finance ministers,
Jean-Claude Juncker, said Friday. A deal is expected to be
announced after that meeting. Greek Finance Minister George
Papaconstantinou said Greece is "very close" to an agreement with
its European partners and the International Monetary Fund on an aid
and reform program and the Greek government has largely signed off
on a three-year austerity program, which is a precondition for
aid.
Iranian Leader Plans To Attend U.N. Conference Mon
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plans to attend a U.N.
conference Monday on compliance with a nuclear non-proliferation
treaty. This week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who will led
the U.S. delegation, urged Ahmadinejad not to disrupt the meeting,
which is held every five years to check compliance with the
arms-control treaty.
Israeli, Egyptian Leaders To Discuss Peace Talks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt on Monday to discuss a resumption
of Middle East peace talks, a top Israeli official told Agence
France Presse. They will meet in Sharm el-Sheikh, the Red Sea
resort where Mubarak is convalescing after surgery last month.
Tight Race For British Leader In Election Thursday
Conservative Party leader David Cameron appeared to pull away
from the pack after the third televised debate featuring the top
three candidates for British prime minister on Thursday evening.
During the debate, Liberal Democrat upstart Nick Clegg sought to
continue his populist momentum and Labour Prime Minister Gordon
Brown battled for political survival. Among the issues at the top
of voters' concerns in the election next Thursday are the U.K.'s
battered economy, taxes and immigration.
Conferences
Among the significant conferences next week are the RBC Capital
Markets Financial Institutions Conference from Sunday through
Tuesday in Boston, Credit Suisse Group Offshore Technology
Conference from Sunday through Wednesday in Houston, and Deutsche
Bank Securities Health Care Conference from Monday through
Wednesday in Boston.
-By Kathy Shwiff, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2357;
kathy.shwiff@dowjones.com
(Dow Jones Newswires staff contributed to this article.)
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