A quick glance at the calendar this week and an instant case of nausea should set in. The week is not only overloaded with reports, but only a few are expected to show improvement.

I don’t think I have to tell you how bad this could be. The market is already on shaky ground, and a week full of disappointing reports could plunge us back below the 7200 level.

With such a full week, I will briefly touch on a few of the more important reports.

Both the ISM Index and ISM Services reports are expected to show a drop for February. With a reading of 34 on the ISM, and 41.3 on the Services, both are indicating further contraction.

On Tuesday, the Pending Home Sales report for January is released, and is expected to show a decline of three percent. I actually expect this report to beat expectations with all the foreclosures and distressed sales in the markets.

The Fed Beige Book comes out Wednesday. While this only gives an overview of labor markets, wages, manufacturing, etc, in each of the Fed regions, it could give an early insight into whether any regions are seeing any sort of turnaround.

January Factory Orders are announced on Thursday, and no real surprise here. The decline is expected to continue, albeit less than the December report. Plain and simple, manufacturing is getting decimated.

The real blow this week could come on Friday when the Non-Farm Payroll report for February is announced. Expectations are for a loss of 615k jobs. If this is an accurate reading, that means that in the first two months of the year, the economy will have shed over 1.2 million jobs. That means in the first two months of the year, we will have lost half the amount of jobs the country lost all of last year.

Source: Employment Data Could End A Scary Week Of Reports