If you look at recent headlines such as CNNMoney.com’s “Another Sign of a Housing Thaw” you may be inclined to believe that the housing market has finally found a bottom. Various reports cite increases in sales, slight increases in sales prices, and reduced inventory. These are the three factors needed for any housing recovery to begin. Throw in the first-time homebuyer tax credit, and we may have a winning formula.

Monday

Earnings Announcements: Novellus (NVLS)

The furious rally that the markets have staged over the last three months appears to be running out of steam. The consensus that we are heading for a pullback is growing every day.

In the late 1800’s, a man was looking for a material with the ability to withstand intense heat. He took filaments of bamboo and baked them at a very high temperature in a controlled atmosphere. Through this process, called pyrolysis, the bamboo filaments became fire resistant and able to withstand extreme heat. The man’s name was Thomas Edison, and he was searching for the filament needed to create the incandescent lightbulb.Fast forward 120 years or so, and chances are you own something that utilizes nearly the same technology: a tennis racket, a bicycle, or for the younger crowd, a car hood or spoiler. I am talking about carbon fiber.

While the viability of the electric car is still heavily debated, the other attempt to reduce our dependency on foreign oil is making news again. And the news is not good.

There is quite a bit of discussion right now about if this market rally is real, and if it is how long it can last. The last round of corporate earnings weren’t as bad as many expected, and there seems to be some tempered optimism that this could be a sustained rally.

On Monday it was announced that Homebuilder Sentiment rose again in April, marking the eight-straight month of increases. Yesterday the April Building Permit and Housing Start reports came out, and they both woefully missed estimates.

A little over a week ago the title to one of my articles was “Employment Numbers Are About To Get Historically Bad”. The article was looking ahead to last Friday’s employment report, which had it followed expectations would have shown another 600,000 jobs lost in April.

This could get ugly. Another month, another 600k+ jobs expected to be lost. This would mark the 16th straight month of job losses, just one month short of the longest streak in history.

Tomorrow night after the market closes Google will report their 2009 first-quarter earnings. Looking at the estimates, it almost seems as if the market is doing everything possible to help Google beat estimates. But has the bar been lowered enough? Let’s take a look.