Today's economic calendar will focus on jobless claims and a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
New jobless claims will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The consensus forecast calls for a slight rise to 366,000 from last week's 365,000. Estimates range from 360,000 to 380,000 new filings.
Also at that time the March trade balance will be reported. Analysts on average are expecting the deficit to widen to -$49.50 billion from the previous month's -$46 billion. Estimates range from -$52 billion to -$45 billion.
A third report at that hour will be import and export prices for April. The consensus expectation for exports is a change of 0.2 percent, within a range of 0.1 percent to 0.4 percent. The last reading was 0.8 percent.
Import prices are expected to show a change of -0.2 percent, within a range of -1.1 percent to 0.7 percent. The last report for this category was 1.3 percent.
Bernanke is scheduled to speak at 9:30 a.m. ET. Traders can expect market volatility during and after his remarks. Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Narayana Kocherlakota will make an appearance at 10 a.m. ET.
The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index comes out at 9:45 a.m. ET. The weekly EIA natural-gas report follows at 10:30 a.m. ET.
Three- and six-month Treasury bill auctions, as well as 10-year TIPS, will be announced at 11 a.m. ET. A 30-year bond auction will begin at 1 p.m. ET.
Following that auction the Treasury's budget for April will be released. A decline to -$30 billion is expected, within a range of -$39 billion to unchanged. The March reading was -$198.2 billion.
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