Durable Goods Numbers Near December 2007 High [ANALYSIS]

On the economics side of the information flow absorbed by markets over the past few days, the housing market data came in relatively moderate, with prices indicating some confidence in the future of the demand side. Among this weeks’ big figures are the Census Bureau’s durable goods orders.  Of the entire information released, two are generally considered by market observers as most influential in giving an indication of where the economy is heading: the new durable goods order figure and the new durable goods order less the volatile transportation orders (right or wrong, the reporting is akin to the way the inflation figures are reported excluding the volatile food and energy components).

The seasonally adjusted durable goods...