The Economic Week Ahead: April 21 - 26

This will be a big week for S&P 500 earnings. Fed officials are in their blackout period until Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaks at his May 1 press conference following the next meeting of the "Federal Open Mouth Committee." On the economic front, the big fireworks will occur at the end of the week:

(1) Q1's real GDP (Thu) should show an increase of about 2.9% according to Friday's GDPNow tracking model with real consumer spending and real private investment up 3.5% and 3.7%. That would be the seventh consecutive solid reading for real GDP (chart). That certainly isn't a hard landing and hardly a soft one.