By Bryan McCormick
In addition to the regular weekly retail reports for a Tuesday, today's session will also include home-price data, consumer confidence and the release of Federal Reserve minutes.
The FOMC meeting minutes will be released at 2 p.m. ET. Traders will study them to discern any possible hints of policy change or disagreements among Fed members.
At 7:45am ET, the weekly ICSC/Goldman Store Sales report will be released. It will include a week-over-week change and the year-over-year change. Most traders focus on the year-over-year number because it's is a better indicator of the longer-term trend. The prior week-over-week change was a decline of 1 percent. The year-over-year data in the previous report showed a gain of 3 percent.
Stronger than expected positive numbers would be seen as bullish, while negative numbers could elicit a bearish reaction.
The weekly Redbook Store Sales is scheduled for 8:55am ET. It also has a more volatile month-over-month change, while the year-over-year change is a better measure of the long-term trend. The prior month-over-month change was a gain of 0.2 percent, and the year-over-year data showed a gain of 3.6 percent. Negative numbers in either series would be bearish.
At 9 a.m. ET, the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index comes out, with economists predicting a month-over-month gain of 0.6 percent. The range is from zero, which would be bearish, to a bullish reading of 1.3 percent. On a yearly basis, home prices are expected to be down 4.6 percent. The range is from a more bearish drop of 5.5 percent, to a moderately bullish 4 percent.
The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index will be released at 10am ET. Consensus calls for a drop down to 52, from the previous month's 59.5. The range of forecasts is very wide, from a bearish low of 46 to a bullish reading of 59 at the high.
