Report	Definition	Source	Frequency	Market Importance
Employment Report	A measure of net new jobs created, the unemployment rate, average hourly earnings and the length of the average workweek.	Labor Department	First Friday of the Month at 8:30 am EST	High.  Considered the single best indicator of the health of the economy.
Housing Starts and Building Permits	Measures privately owned housing starts authorized by building permits.	Census Bureau	Data from prior month comes out around the 18th at 8:30 am EST.	Some.  Considered to be a good indicator of home sales and general spending.
Producer Price Index	Measures the change in prices received by domestic producers in all stages of processing.	Labor Department	Data from prior month comes out around the 13th at 8:30 am EST.	High.  Important measure of inflation.
Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization	A measure of the change in the production of the nation's factories, mines and utilities.	Federal Reserve	Data from prior month comes out around the 15th of the month at 9:15 am EST.	High.  Considered to be a key factory-sector gauge.  An inflationary indicator.
NAPM	National manufacturing index based on a survey of purchasing managers at approximately 300 industrial companies.	NAPM	Data from prior month comes out on the first business day of the month at 10:00 am EST.	High.  Considered to be the single best indicator of the condition of the factory sector.
Chicago Purchasing Managers Index	Signals factory-sector expansion when it is above 50 and contraction below 50.	Chicago arm of the NAPM	Data for the current month is released on the last business day of the month at 10:00 am EST.	High.  A good gauge of how the PMI is expected to be a few days later.
New Home Sales	Measures the selling rate of new one-family houses.	Census Bureau	Around the end of the month at 10:00 am EST.	Some.  Considered to be a good indicator of home sales and general spending.
Initial Jobless Claims	Measures the number of people filing first time claims for state unemployment insurance.	Labor Department	Every Thursday at 8:30 EST.	Some.  A good indicator of the monthly employment report.
Durable Goods Orders	Measures the value of orders received by manufacturers for products that last more than 3 years.	Census Bureau	Data for the prior month comes out around the 26th of the month at 8:30 am EST.	Much. Considered to be a key factory-sector indicator.
Existing Home Sales	A measure of the selling rate of preowned homes.	National Association of Realtors	Data for the prior month comes out around the 25th of the month at 10:00 am EST.	Some.  Considered to be a good indicator of home sales and general spending.
Redbook Retail Average	An index that reflects the same-store sales of a group of companies that account for 85% of the department store category in the Census Bureau's monthly retail sales report.	LJR Redbook	Every Tuesday at 10:30 am EST.	Some.  Important Spending Indicator with higher interest during peak sales seasons.
Weekly Chain Store Sales	Sales results from seven major retailers.	Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and UBS Warburg	Every Tuesday at 9:00 am EST.	Some.  Important Spending Indicator with higher interest during peak sales seasons.