@ The White House
In the morning, the President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing in the Oval Office.
Later in the morning, the President will welcome the leaders of the European Union to a summit at the White House. The President looks forward to meeting with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, and High Representative Catherine Ashton to discuss a broad range of issues of mutual concern, including the global economy; our efforts to strengthen economic ties and growth; our joint work to support democracy and prosperity in the European neighborhood, across the Middle East and North Africa, and in other regions; our continuing coordination on Iran; and our commitment to improved transatlantic law enforcement and counterterrorism cooperation.
In the afternoon, the President will host an EU summit lunch.
Later in the afternoon, the President, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso will deliver statements in the Roosevelt Room.
@ Wall Street
Equity markets fell further on more bad news from the Eurozone and the congressional supercommittee?s failure to come up with a package to cut projected budget deficits. On the data front, key updates were mixed, with existing home sales, disposable personal income, and consumer sentiment up, but durable goods orders down, and third quarter GDP growth revised down.
The key release in the upcoming week will be Friday's November employment report, which is expected to show job growth of 125,000, no change in the unemployment rate, and further job losses in government. New home sales (Monday) are expected to be up in October, while the Case-Shiller home prices indices are expected to show greater weakness in September than in recent months.
Third-quarter labor productivity (Wednesday) should be revised down sharply. Construction spending for October (Thursday) should be down on cutbacks in public sector spending. Motor vehicle sales (Thursday) for November are projected to rise to their highest level since August 2009, when they were boosted by the cash-for-clunkers program. Finally, the ISM manufacturing index for November (Thursday) should be up on a slightly brighter outlook for manufacturing.
New Home Sales (Oct.): We are projecting a small increase (2.2%) in new home sales for October, based on the recent pickup in builder confidence, and an increase in single-family permits in October. New single-family construction has been inching up in recent months. The level of sales remains depressed, though, and new home sales will set a record low in 2011.