With every politician in Washington saying that the American car companies need to behave more in line with their Japanese competitors, Honda today announced that they are attempting to reduce their production this summer by 62,000 vehicles. The reduction in production will come by way of 35,600 less employees in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. In addition, overall reduction in compensation will affect top executives the most while leaving pay rates for production and hourly workers. The company will also schedule 13 non-production days in May through July.

The latest batch of consumer sentiment data suggests that the Consumer Confidence Index edged up to 26 from 25.3 in February. Although an advance, this figure is near all times lows. The American consumers are still dealing with falling home values, job security and shrinking retirement/investment funds.

Key economic data for the week starting Mar 30th, 2009. Numbers shown are consensus estimates (market anticipates this value) and prior value.

Wednesday:
	08:15 ADP Employment Change Mar -648K -697K 10:00 Construction Spending Feb -1.6% -3.3% 10:00 ISM Index Mar 36.0 35.8 10:00 Pending Home Sales Feb -2.0% -7.7% 10:30 Crude Inventories 03/27 NA +3300K 14:00 Auto Sales Mar NA 2.9M 14:00 Truck Sales Mar NA 3.5M

Thursday:
	08:30 Initial Claims 03/28 653K NA 10:00 Factory Orders Feb -0.3% -1.9%

Friday:
	08:30 Average Workweek Mar 33.3 33.3 08:30 Hourly Earnings Mar 0.2% 0.2% 08:30 Nonfarm Payrolls Mar -656K -651K 08:30 Unemployment Rate Mar 8.5% 8.1% 10:00 ISM Services Mar 42.0 41.6

© HGH Associated Press

News Archive (from 1/1/2009 until 3/31/2009)