Looking Ahead: Week of November 26 to November 30
Market News International compiles a market consensus that surveys 15 to 20 economists each week.

Tuesday
Economists are predicting that the Conference Board's consumer confidence index will post a modest rise in November to a level of 86, from October's level of 85.5. This forecast is based on November's release of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index that came out last week and showed a mild gain. (Forecast range: 84.5 to 90.0)

Existing home sales are expected to post a 2 percent rise in October to a 5.00 million-unit rate. This would barely offset September's 11.7 percent drop, but still suggest that home sales are holding up because of low mortgage rates. (Forecast range: 4.60 to 5.10 million-unit rate)

Wednesday
The Fed's Beige Book will be reported in advance of the December 10 FOMC meeting. Analysts and market players will be reading the report to see if labor market conditions, retail sales and manufacturing activity are improving. This report will cover anecdotal information through roughly November 16.

Thursday
The market consensus is looking for new jobless claims to increase 13,000 to 440,000 in the week ended November 24 from last week's level of 427,000. Jobless claims typically rise in the week following a week that includes a holiday, but that was not the case last week. With the Thanksgiving-shortened week, and the holiday season in general, new claims tend to be more volatile than normal in November and December. (Forecast range: +3,000 to +23,000)

Economists are predicting that new orders for durable goods will record an increase of 1.4 percent in October after declining 8.5 percent in the previous month. Even with a modest gain, this sector is so depressed that it is a drop in the bucket to what's needed to get industrial production moving (upwards) again. (Forecast range: -0.9 to +5.0 percent)

New home sales will edge down to an 850,000-unit rate in October after declining 1.4 percent in September to an 864,000-unit rate in September. Housing activity is down from its peak despite the fact that mortgage rates were still declining in October. On the whole, the housing market is relatively resilient in the face of a recession in the manufacturing sector over the past year. (Forecast range: 820,000 to 870,000).

Friday
The market consensus is looking for a downward revision in third quarter real GDP to -1.1 percent from the initial Commerce Department estimate of -0.4 percent. A bigger decline in business inventories and a larger drag-than-expected from the net export component are the major contributing factors to the downward revision. (Forecast range: -1.5 to -0.5 percent) The GDP price deflator is expected to remain unchanged at a 2.1 percent annualized rate.

The Chicago purchasing managers' index (also know as the PMAC survey) is expected to decline to 42 percent in November from a level of 46.2 percent in October. This confirms the continued weakness in the manufacturing sector.