Jam-Packed Economics and Events Calendar

Expectations for this week’s data is solidly optimistic as economists have recently been revising their forecasts for 2010 growth upwards.

As Ellen Zentner from BTMU noted, “The most reliable broad indicators of the U.S. economy are expanding at a healthy clip, suggesting that first quarter growth will come in around 3.5% with all of 2010 coming in around 3.2%.”

Although Monday begins the week on a slow note in terms of fresh data, the rest of the week is packed with housing data, retail sales, industrial production, and regional manufacturing indexes. In addition, countless officials from the Federal Reserve are on the speaking circuit from Tuesday to Friday.

And even if the week were slow, investors would still be busy as stock prices trade at their highest levels since September 2008. The Dow, for instance, briefly crossed the 11,000 mark last Friday.

Overseas, investors are pushing equities higher after Eurozone officials agreed on how money should be lent to Greece, if they requested such a loan. Also, China announced its first monthly trade deficit since 2004. The monthly gap of $7.24 billion in March follows a surplus of $7.61 billion in February. Exports rose an annualized 24.3% while imports shot up 66.0%.

Just more than one hour before today’s opening bell, Dow futures are up 6 points to 10,959 and S&P 500 futures are up 0.25 points to 1,192.00. In the bond market, the 2 year Treasury note is -0-02 at 99-26 yielding 1.089% and the 10 year note is -0-06 at 97-26 yielding 3.906%.

The NYMEX crude oil futures contract is down 43 cents to $84.49 per barrel, and Gold is trading $1.50 higher at $1,163.40.

Key Events This Week:

Monday:

2:00 â€