Weekly Economic Calendar

February 4-8, 2008

                                                                                                            Consensus       Prior

Monday, 2/4

            December Factory Orders                                                   +2.4%             +1.5%

                        Durable goods orders jumped +5.2% MoM in December

                        Non-durable goods orders likely to decline due to lower oil prices

Fed Governor Kroszner speaks on “Proposed Amendments to the Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z) and the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act”

Tuesday, 2/5

            January ISM Non-Manufacturing Composite                 52.5                 53.2

                        Business Activity Index                                           53                    54.4

Switches to new headline figure based on a composite index instead of the business activity index (high historic correlation between the two)

New composite index equally weights business activity, new orders, employment and supplier deliveries

Headline expected to ease in January as economy slowed

A 52 reading is consistent with 2% GDP growth

            Richmond Fed President Lacker speaks on the U.S. Economic Outlook

Wednesday, 2/6

            Preliminary 4^th Qtr Productivity                                        +1%                +6.3%

                        Productivity surged to highest since 2003 in 3^rd qtr

A large drop in self-employed hours worked is expected to help minimize impact of anemic output growth in 4^th qtr of +0.4%

YoY growth rate expected to ease down to 2.6% from 2.7% in 3^rd qtr

            Preliminary 4^th Qtr Unit Labor Costs                                +3.1%             -2%

                        Compensation has been growing around 3.5%

                        3rd quarter decline was the largest in 4 years as productivity leaped

Fed Governor Kroszner speaks to Women in Housing and Finance repeating Monday’s speech

Philadelphia Fed President Plosser speak on the Economic Outlook

Thursday, 2/7

            Initial Jobless Claims                                                                                  375k

                        Continuing Claims                                                                          2716k

Last week’s number distorted by timing of MLK holiday, but huge 69k rise remains significant

Initial claims at a 27 month high; 4 week average now 326k

Continuing claims may rise to new cycle high

            December Pending Home Sales                                         -1%                 -2.6%

New and existing home sales, as well as housing starts and building permits, are all at cycle lows

                        The pace of decline is expected to slow

            December Consumer Credit                                               $7.2B              $15.4B

                        Weak retail sales should slow credit growth

Increase expected to be evenly distributed between credit cards and non-revolving debt

            Atlanta Fed President Lockhart speech “to be determined”

Dallas Fed Presdient Fisher speaks on Central Bank Independence and Economic Stability

Friday, 2/8

            December Wholesale Inventories                                      +0.3%             +0.6%

Decent sales by wholesalers has supported demand as the inventory-to-sales ratio has fallen to new lows

            San Francisco Fed President Yellen speaks to CFA’s

Atlanta Fed President Lockhart speaks on “International Financial Markets and the National Economy”