Tuesday's Events: U.S. S&P/CS, New Home Sales, Cons Conf; Cdn Emp Insurance

Some Fed speakers, the U.S. S&P Case-Shiller house price index, new home sales and consumer confidence will complement the release of Canadian employment insurance data on Tuesday morning.

At 8:15 a.m. EDT, Fed Governor Randall Kroszner (voter) will speak on U.S. mortgage markets. The comments are expected to be identical to those delivered on May 22. No Q&A is expected.

At 8:30 a.m. EDT, Statistics Canada will release its employment insurance report for March. In February, employment insurance receipts declined 1.1% month-over-month.

At 9 a.m. EDT, Standard and Poor's and Case-Shiller will release their house price index for March and the first quarter of 2008. Economists are expecting the 20-city composite index to decline 14.2% year-over-year compared to February's 12.7% pullback. The first quarter index for 2008 is expected to pullback 12.5% year-over-year after falling an annualized 8.9% in the previous period.

At 10 a.m. EDT, markets will receive the U.S. Conference Board's consumer confidence index for May, which is expected to decline to 60.0 from 62.3 in April.

Also at 10 a.m., the Richmond Federal reserve will release its manufacturing index for May, which is expected to rise to a score of 1 from the previous month's reading of 0.

At the same time, the U.S. Census Bureau will release new home sales for April. Economists are expecting sales to fall slightly to 523k from a previous 526k new homes sold in April. The fall would translate into a 0.6% month-over-month decline compared to March's 8.9% pullback.

At 10:30 a.m. EDT, the Bank of Canada will sell C$ 7.4 billion in 2008.09.04, C$2.8 billion 2008.11.13 and C$2.8 billion in 2009.05.14 bills.

At 11 a.m. EDT, San Francisco Fed President Janet Yellen (non-voter) will speak on the U.S. economy and monetary policy at the 26th annual FPA NorCal Conference in San Francisco.

At 1 p.m. EDT, the U.S. Treasury will sell $25 billion in three month bills and $23 billion in six-month treasury bills.

At 5 p.m. EDT, ABC will release its weekly consumer comfort index. The index stood at -49 in the week ending March 17.

Markets will also be looking for second-quarter earnings from Scotiabank and Bank of Montreal on Tuesday.

8:15 US Fed's Kroszner Speaks on Banking and Financial Risk in Brazil

8:30 CA Employment Insurance (M/M) March Prior: -1.1%

9:00 US S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index March Prior: 175.9

9:00 US S&P/Case-Shiller Composite-20 (Y/Y) March Exp: -14.2%Prior: -12.7%

9:00 US S&P/Case-Shiller US HPI 1Q Prior: 170.6

9:00 US S&P/Case-Shiller US HPI (Y/Y) 1Q Exp: -12.5% Prior: -8.9%

10:00 US Consumer Confidence May Exp: 60.0 Prior: 62.3

10:00 US Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index May Exp: 1 Prior: 0

10:00 US New Home Sales April Exp: 523K Prior: 526K

10:00 US New Home Sales (M/M) April Exp: -0.6% Prior: -8.5%

10:30 CA BOC to Sell Treasury Bills

11:50 US Fed's Yellen Speaks on Economy, Policy in San Francisco

13:00 US Treasury to Sell $25B 3-Month Bills

13:00 US Treasury to Sell $23B 6-Month Bills

17:00 US ABC Consumer Confidence W/E 25-May Exp: -49 Prior: -49

27- May Scotia Bank Q2 Earnings

27- May BMO Bank Q2 Earnings

By Erik Kevin Franco and edited by Nancy Girgis