@ The White House
In the morning, the President and the Vice President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing in the Oval Office.
Later in the morning, the President will sign H.R. 3801, the Ultralight Aircraft Smuggling Prevention Act of 2012. This bill is the last piece of legislation that former Representative Gabrielle Giffords sponsored and voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives. The President will be joined in the Oval Office by the Vice President, former Representative Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly. There will be a stills only pool spray of the bill signing.
In the afternoon, the President will attend a campaign event in Washington, DC.
@ Wall Street
Trade Balance (Dec.)
The foreign trade deficit should widen modestly to $48.5 billion in December, after a very sharp increase in November that brought the deficit up to $47.8 billion. Overall, we expect imports to increase faster than exports.
Oil imports should post a minor further uptick after their November surge, while non-petroleum imports should rise, driven by consumer goods and autos. We expect exports to post a small increase with gains in services, industrial supplies and autos offset by declines in capital and consumer goods.
For the first quarter of 2012, export growth should remain modest while imports pull back slightly as replenished inventories generate less pull for foreign goods. This should make foreign trade roughly neutral for growth.
Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index, preliminary (Feb.)
We expect the Reuters/Michigan consumer sentiment index to improve by 1.0 point to 76.0 in mid-February, from a 75.0 reading in January.
Gasoline prices are creeping up again, but there has been good news elsewhere, notably from the labor market.
In January, the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%, from 8.5%, and the economy added 243,000 jobs. Improving confidence was reflected in impressive auto sales in January.