The Economic Week Ahead: May 20 - 24

The week ahead is a light one for economic reports. The focus is mostly on the housing sector, which is showing signs of bottoming if not recovering. Meanwhile, we will continue to focus on Dr. Copper, the metal with a PhD in economics. We watch the price of copper as an indicator of global economic activity, which seems to be improving though the price of oil has yet to confirm the recent jump in the price of copper. Consider the following:

(1) Existing home sales. We expect to see April's existing home sales report (Wed) show further recovery from the lows seen late last year (Wed) (chart). Homebuyers are getting used to mortgage rates around 7%.