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At 7:45 AM Eastern time, the weekly ICSC-Goldman Store Sales report will be released, giving an update on the health of the consumer through this analysis of retail sales.

At 8:55 AM Eastern time, the weekly Redbook report will be released, giving us more information about consumer spending.

At 9:00 AM Eastern time, the monthly S&P/Case-Shiller home price index report will be released.  Given that most economists don’t expect the overall U.S. economy to improve until housing prices end their decline, the market will be watching this number closely.

At 9:45 AM Eastern time, the Chicago PMI Index for January will be announced. The consensus index value is 63.0, which is 0.5 points higher than last month, and is above the break-even level at 50.

At 10:00 AM Eastern time, the monthly report on Consumer Confidence for January will be released.  The consensus index level is 68, which would be a 3.5 point increase from last month’s number.

Also at 10:00 AM Eastern time, the State Street Investor Confidence Index will be released, which looks at changes in the amount of equities held in the portfolios of institutional investors.

At 3:00 PM Eastern time, the Farm Prices report for January will be released, giving investors and economists an indication of the direction of food prices in the coming months.

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