@ Wall Street
Markets faced two big hurdles last week ? the Greek parliament's austerity vote in mid-week, and the ISM manufacturing index on Friday. Both hurdles were cleared, so "risk-on" trades took over, and equities climbed while bond prices fell. Greece passed the austerity measures required to access the next tranche of international financial support.
That doesn't solve the Greek problem, but does prevent it from blowing up immediately. At home, a modest improvement in the June ISM manufacturing index came as a welcome relief after early-month indicators from New York and Philadelphia had suggested that the index might weaken sharply.
The downward pressures on growth from commodity costs and from Japan's natural disaster may be starting to ease.
Markets will seek further evidence on the economy's momentum this week in the ISM non-manufacturing report on Wednesday and, crucially, in the employment report on Friday, which is expected to be lackluster but not as weak as in May.
In addition, markets are likely to begin to worry a bit more about the risk of a debt-ceiling train wreck, as negotiations have reached an impasse over whether any taxes should be included in the deficit reduction package accompanying the debt ceiling increase.
@ The White House
Obama will spend the weekend in Camp David.
