The Week Ahead: Euro-Drama, Month-End, Auctions and a Full Week of Data

After a somnambulant holiday-shortened week of trading, markets waste no time in getting back to business.  Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the "landscape of informative events for markets" wastes no time in coming back to life after a fairly limited week past.  Parts of that landscape--such as the several snippets of Euro-drama--were actually well-represented last week, but didn't have much of an impact.  Other parts were either completely absent or woefully limited, leaving the current week more or less, standing in stark contrast.

Monday's order of the day will be determining which version of reality we'll see with respect to Greece and its creditors reaching an agreement on a debt reduction plan.  The agreement is the lynch-pin for the payout of Greece's next tranche of bailout funding.  Eurozone finance ministers and Greece failed to reach an agreement on their first two meetings.  Several European leaders have said that an agreement is likely, but Italian news agency ANSA quoted sources present at the meeting as saying that a decision will be postponed until December 3rd.

The pace of domestic data increases on Tuesday as several moderately important reports will be released by 10am, including readings on Home Prices from both Case Shiller and the FHFA.  Tuesday also marks the inception of the week's auction cycle with 2yr Notes.  These haven't been market movers recently, but the 5 and 7 year auctions on the following two days have a bit more potential.

Housing-related data continues on Wednesday and Thursday with New and Pending Home Sales respectively.  The latter is joined by the preliminary reading on 3rd quarter GDP as well as weekly Jobless Claims (expected to continue their post-Hurricane-Sandy decline).  Friday rounds out the week with more data, including Chicago PMI and the Personal Incomes and Outlays report which measures consumer spending.   There are various Fed speakers throughout the week, including Bernanke at 8:30am on Tuesday.